I get up every day 2 hours before I have to. Why? Because I value learning.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post on how to inspire people, You have certain skills that come naturally to you and that you can hone and develop into a diamond, (Alright, I didn’t actually say that but read it anyway and you’ll understand what I mean). The point is, that one of the most important investments you can do with your time, (the one that comes right after spending time with your loved ones, that is always most important) is to learn. Every bit of learning you do improves your skills, makes you a better person, and equips you with more tools to make this world a little nicer,a little better and enables you to do things you weren’t able to before.
When you learn different things, topics that seem unrelated, you might become the person that comes with a breakthrough in that field. You see, in every field there are experts, but there are extremely not many people who are great at several things at once, and these people (I am talking to You-in-5-years) can become game changers in that area, they can become the persons that come with a breakthrough because they have experiences and skills that may complement each other. You can bring wisdom and knowledge that is needed is needed in a certain situation.
The tech industry is constantly changing. In my field one has to constantly learn, or be left behind. But when you continuously learn, you can build on your previous experiences. Experience is not something that can be learned quickly, it takes years. But adding a bit of new knowledge every day gives you both a breadth of understanding and it enables you to be better and give more value in the field you are in.
You may not yet know the benefit learning a certain skill will give the world. It is only now, after many years of learning different things, some for longer periods of time, that I can put the pieces together and appreciate the palette I have. I can use the experiences I have from leadership coaching and interpretation volunteering in church and the to help my peers.
I will give you two valuable links:
The former gave me a great understanding of how the brain takes in information and we learn. It is called, learning how to learn, and is a great course on Coursera. The latter is a link that when I saw it this morning, I knew I had to write this post. I made me inspired to someday take a course in Chinese. Hmm, I have to wait for that a bit I think since I have quite a backlog at the moment.
Cancel your Netflix, replace it with learning. You can still rent movies for Friday evening. There is no actual need to know what happens in the last episode of “Prison break is the new Gilmoore street of Silicon Valley”. Learning is fun and you will thank yourself 5 years from now. Read a book, listen to audiobooks and podcasts while you mow the lawn or clean the garage.
What would you rather have wished you did 5 years from now. 2 hours of learning new things every day, or 2 episodes of “Prison break is the new Gilmoore street of Silicon Valley” every evening.