Are the skills that got you where you’re at today the ones you’ll need to achieve your goals and dreams tomorrow? I think many of us would admit that the answer is no…and that’s why life long learning is so important.
Earlier this week, Chris Brogan talked about this on his blog, which got me thinking about the fact that not all skills are created equal. Some are more important than others. Some are way more important than others.
I grew up in Southwestern Michigan where a cherry farm has hosted the International Cherry Pit-Spitting Championship for 37 years. Rick “Pellet Gun” Krause (pictured), who won the 2010 competition earlier this month, is a 16-time champion. His winning spit this year was 51 feet, 3 inches!
I have to give him credit – this is an achievement. I don’t know how far I can spit a pit, but I know it’s nowhere near 51 feet. Cherry pit spitting isn’t a skill that’s important to me, but it is to someone else. And I’m sure that I have skills that no one else cares about.
What things are you good at? If you’ve never done it before, make a list and write them down.
Then make a list of the things you want to be good at…the skills you want to develop sometime in your life – for fun or profit.
Along with it, write out a couple of ways that you could learn that skill. For example, is it something you can learn online? Take a class at your local community college? Go back to school part-time or full-time? Take classes for certification? Learn from a friend or co-worker? Hire a teacher? Just learn it on your own?
Looking at this list, is there anything you want to start working on now? If so, what’s the next step you need to take in order to do that?
For me, I want to learn to speak Spanish one day. But I can’t work on it right now, because I am focusing on a few other key areas right now. But I’d like to learn it in the next few years.
Life long learning is an investment in your future! What new skills do you want or need to learn to help you achieve your personal or life goals?
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