To become better in your profession and maintain a sense of fulfillment in all you do, it’s important to stay focused on your own self-development. Keeping this goal may be difficult as life gets more hectic, but remember that by investing in yourself you also enrich others and enhance your performance across the board.
To better commit to self-development:
- Become a Continuous Learning Machine. Set a personal goal to learn something new about your job, your organization, or your professional discipline every week.
- Encourage others to pursue self-development activities. Make time and resources available for them to enhance their job skills.
- Learn by teaching. Volunteer as an instructor for organizational training programs. You’ll not only develop in-depth knowledge about subjects you prepare to teach, you’ll also be able to help others develop and grow.
- Look beyond your profession. Consider pursuing developmental activities that have nothing to do with your job, but can also help you grow as a person. You’ll probably be surprised to find that unrelated learning can positively impact your job performance.
SOURCE: Reprinted with permission: 144 Ways to Walk the Talk. Copyright Performance Systems Corp., Dallas, TX.