After years of essential schooling, then years of tertiary schooling and essential reading for getting a job and getting ahead in a career; many people stop reading and learning as it is no longer deemed essential. After all, why would you continue studying and reading when it is no longer necessary? It is tiring and time-consuming and you have after all just spent the previous twenty years studying and learning.
What is continuous learning?
Continuous learning is the self-motivated persistence in acquiring knowledge and competencies to expand your skillset and develop future opportunities. It is important to your professional development along with personal to reach your full potential. It is similar to autodidactism (look forward to that in another blog!)
Lifelong benefits
Knowledge is now at everyone’s fingertips -and in their pockets. Those not making the most of this opportunity will remain where they are with their current capabilities diminishing in importance. The benefits listed below should be reason enough to never stop learning!
- Remain relevant. Ensure you remain relevant within your industry by keeping up with trends and adapting your skillset. As an example; our firm is moving towards automation and cloud-based accounting to further serve our clients – even though the accounting principles haven’t changed in hundreds of years.
- Prepare for the unexpected. Continuous learning will help you adapt to unexpected changes. For example, losing your job and having to depend on new skills to find work.
- Boost your profile. Every expert starts as a novice. When you are always learning you will keep improving and grow in your career and start to receive recommendations from colleagues, clients, and managers.
- Competence into confidence. Learning new things gives us a feeling of accomplishment, which in turn boosts our confidence in our own capabilities. Self-confidence is a desirable trait for anyone.
- New idea generation. Acquiring new skills will unveil new opportunities and help you find innovative solutions to problems. This could earn you more money.
- Pay it forward Continuous learning is not just about you. Lifelong learning helps develop your leadership skills which then translates into fostering lifelong learning in other individuals, by encouraging them to pursue further education.
The Bottom Line
Listening to, watching, and reading about successful people won’t make you successful. Continuous, lifelong learning and pushing yourself to greater limits will.
Imagine the places you’ll go.
Written by Andrew Callister