The world waits for no one. This is true for everything. It’s true for governments, businesses, and for individuals. Things are shifting, changing, and adapting. You need to prepare yourself so that when the tides of change come, you can steer your way towards your goals.
The best way to do this is through knowledge. If you know your options ahead of time and can better predict how things are shifting and what they are changing to, you can adjust your career, or if you are a business owner or manager, your entire business.
Lifelong learning is the single best way to do this. There is always something new to learn, but, more importantly, you will need to relearn as you go.
Start with a Solid Foundation
It can feel like you don‘t know where to start, and that’s okay. Building up a great foundation is the best way to get started, and guided education is the way to do it. For most, this will be your undergraduate degree. You’ll learn, specialize, and figure out what your interests are and what career path you want for yourself.
Don’t be scared to go back, however. A Bachelor of Business Administration can make a world of difference for those who aspire to become business leaders, but it can actually be more instrumental done later on as a working professional. This way, you can combine leadership and management skills with your personal specialization, making you an ideal candidate for your career trajectory.
These undergraduate degrees can help by giving you the essential foundation that you can base the rest of your lifelong learning efforts on. The key to lifelong learning, however, is to not stop once you graduate but to instead continue with tips from the rest of the guide.
Everyday Reading
One of the best ways to commit to lifelong learning is to read. Look for books, blogs, magazines, and industry reports and try to read even just a little every day: one chapter, one blog post, a section of that report. Concepts, ideas, and regulations change so often that you absolutely must commit to ongoing education if you want your knowledge to remain relevant. If you don’t, then it will slowly become less useful as time goes on.
Love Podcasts
You do have more options to learn than just reading. Podcasts are a great way to commit to ongoing learning. There are podcasts for almost every topic, allowing you to learn something new for fun or hearing from industry experts to stay on top of the latest thoughts in business.
You’ll want to adopt both reading and listening into your lifelong learning approach so that you can best take up dead space in your day and better yourself little by little. If you take public transport, for example, it’s easy to read. If you get nauseous when reading on transport, drive, or walk to work, however, podcasts can help keep you learning with ease.
Get Social with It
Workshopping ideas and meeting new people will always be a learning experience. That’s why you should be social with your learning. Build a study group during your degree, stay in touch with your alumni community and even consider finding a mentor.
Go to events and workshops to meet new people. Inspiration and great ideas can come from everywhere, so not only should you seek out ways to meet new people, you don’t have to keep your efforts locked into your industry.
Go learn something new about any topic you are interested in and don’t forget to start conversations with the people you meet along the way.
Don’t be Afraid to Develop Your Own Theories
If you have an idea, you have to own that idea. Workshop it, write about it, and aim to get it published. There are many places where you can do this, from your own personal blog to getting your work published on a major news site or magazine. You want that idea to be associated with your name, as this can help get you into expert circles and can be great for your career.
Being Prepared to Relearn
It can be very, very frustrating to do something for years and then be told that you are doing it wrong. This can be something as minor as using a certain tool, only to be told that this new tool is the new industry standard. Try not to take it personally. The world and its ideologies change, and being willing to relearn will set you apart and help you succeed.
