Learning lives forever

 “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”  -Eric Hoffer (Medal of Freedom winning Author)

As a learning professional, the most common excuse I hear is “I am just too busy to go training.” This excuse, to me, is a real head scratcher. With the world changing so fast, I don’t think we have the luxury of being too busy to learn; otherwise we may suffer the same fate of those struggling to stay relevant in today’s business world. Now please understand, I get it…we all get busy and need more time in the day, we’ve all been there.
With everyone being so busy, I wanted to share two tips I picked up from an article I read about how to overcome the most common barrier that extinguishes the fire of the life-long learner.

#1 Make it a priority
In most cases, we get to choose how you spend your time. Choices we make every day dictate how much or how little time we get to focus on a project. Learning is no different except there is no deadline on your education; spending 30 minutes here and there is not a huge sacrifice IF you make it priority. Mobile learning such as podcasts or audio books are easy to listen to while you are crunching numbers or working on a project. If you make a conscious decision to make learning a priority, the time will be there.
#2 Change your idea of learning

Learning does not always mean attending a class. In fact most learning happens outside the walls of a classroom or via online training. We can create opportunities to learn new skills by perhaps re-engineering the way we do our work/project or to go to lunch with a mentor, coach or friend just to discover solutions to work/life challenges. On our individual development plans IHS prescribes the 70/20/10 model to learning. This model suggests that our learning should come from 70% is on-the-job, 20% from others and 10% from class.
As a Talent Development partner, I am committed to helping YOU and YOUR team being the best in your field. I would invite you to consider how you view and prioritize learning and perhaps consider how to reignite the fire for learning that you once had.
For the rest of the article I referred to here is the link (it’s a long article, just a warning):
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/03/18/how-and-why-to-become-a-lifelong-learner/