“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Albert Einstein
Continuously learning is how you will stay relevant at any level of an organization. Consider stepping outside of your comfort zone, diversifying your areas of knowledge and establishing rituals and habits that support learning.
Lifelong learning has long been understood to be a critical success factor. But today, it’s taken on even greater importance. The pace of change continues to accelerate, and the level of complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty means that what you knew yesterday may be irrelevant today. The half-life of technical skills continues to shrink.
Try the following actions to enhance your growth mindset:
Cultivate Curiosity
Curiosity is a spirit, intention, and skill we can bring to our work, interactions with others and the world in general. It involves a genuine inquisitiveness, desire to understand, and willingness to step into a void with nothing more than questions and a receptive mind.
Stay Social
Traditional learning models rooted in the educational system rely heavily on individual research and study. A growth mindset, however, is based in large part on learning through and with others. Intentional connections offer a range of benefits, including the sharing of knowledge, insights, and experience. Consider the power of dialogue in your business to uncover new ideas.
Illuminate the NOW
While deliberate, scheduled efforts to learn are essential, it’s equally important to recognize that learning frequently doesn’t occur on a schedule. Life offers a range of moment-by-moment opportunities to gain experience, tap wisdom, push boundaries and try new approaches. A learning mindset means being open to and ready for these ad-hoc possibilities. It means mining the routine for richness.
Investing in learning today can help address current day-to-day pressures while building long-term, a sustainable capacity that will contribute to future effectiveness and satisfaction — at work and beyond.