Continuous learning: Your secret sauce to a lifetime of success

Do you desire to excel in your dream job? 

Yearning for a seamless career transition into unknown territory?

Looking for new growth avenues? 

Here’s the answer to it all: Continuous learning

While leaving your office, you suddenly remember that you have to prepare a presentation for a client meet at 9 A.M. the next morning. You are yet to close an on-going deal and obtain signatures to the paperwork at hand. You have no idea about the client nor the industry they operate in. Totally clueless, you get to it at 2 A.M., work until 6 A.M. somehow managing to finish the presentation. You lack confidence due to the last minute work and the client is not satisfied. You lose the contract and a great deal of revenue

This situation could have better dealt if had you known about the industry at the very least. 

How? 

By inculcating a habit of enhancing your knowledge and acquiring/sharpening your skills on a daily basis alongside your work

It could be through multiple formats like videos, MOOCs, podcasts etc… All you’ve got to do is give 20-25 minutes of your time to it, diligently

Why?

• To remain relevant – The half-life of a learned skill is five years indicating the rapid/rampant need to learn new skills and update them regularly to remain professionally competent. With the rapidly changing world and the move towards the gig economy, your existing skills will be rendered obsolete more quickly
• To enhance productivity: Getting a job at a firm does not guarantee lifetime employment, but better preparedness results does. Continuous learning amplifies productivity and output in multi-folds
• To prepare for the unforeseen: Learn and leverage others’ experiences to avoid reinventing the wheel and speedily adapt to new circumstances
• To become goal-orientated: Continuous learning requires setting up daily goals and achieving them. This practice can do wonders in the long-run in the corporate world
• Access to new opportunities: Learning provides the required fluidity and an in-depth understanding of various perspectives to carve your own opportunities

The need for continuous learning is more now than ever due to the following reasons:

1. Frequency of job change: Gone are the days when you spent a life-time in one job. It’s the era of short tenure and gig jobs where the learning curve often is equal to your job stint
2. Ever changing skills: Jobs and job requirements are rapidly changing. The skills that you had 5 years back might be obsolete by now
3. Dynamic digital disruptions: Digital disruptions have accelerated the need for up-skilling for professionals to stay relevant

Frequent changes on the professional front can only be addressed with continuous learning