The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #8 Commit to Continuous Learning
Are you meeting your current job’s requirements? Do you know how to exceed them? Is your next career move on your radar screen?
To be successful in our career and in life, we must take control of our own continuous education by:
- Learning new business ideas
- Strengthening existing knowledge areas
- Being proactive in creating a custom curriculum for our career
Research your job requirements
After graduating from my master’s program, I realized that my undergraduate and graduate programs didn’t prepare me in career management. After realizing this problem, I determined that one of the best ways to manage my career was to take initiative by learning of business areas that would help me with my existing job requirements, current career goals, and future career goal requirements.
Struggling to be an effective Marketing Manager, I researched product marketing and product management, which were areas I didn’t learn about in my political science or healthcare administration programs. After I became a department head, I read everything I could on management and leadership. Even when I became a VP, I had to do a deep dive into Sales Operations and Sales Management because my CEO needed help in these areas.
The different career stages
I also realized there were at least six different career stages required different experience, knowledge and skill set requirements. These career stages are:
- New knowledge worker: first couple of years out of college or graduate school
- Advanced knowledge worker: three to four years into our career
- Senior knowledge worker: five+ years into our career track
- Director: department head or director of a function
- VP: executive level position
- Entrepreneur: career change from being a knowledge worker, director, or VP
I kept mental notes of what I needed to learn for each career stage. Whenever I faced new projects in my existing job, I researched all I could on the subject, applying those lessons into my project. Most of time, I was successful on the project, adding my own value it by integrating some of the latest business ideas into my deliverables.
At any career stage, there’s always a need to grow our knowledge and skill set by learning new business areas such as sales, marketing, management, or strategy. Committing to continuous learning keeps you engaged and challenged in our job and career. It helps you discover new areas of interest that may turn into a passion play for you.
Action Items
What are job’s current job requirements? Are there any new business books that will help re-energize your current outlook on your existing job? If you know the next step in your career, do you know the job requirements of that job?
Do a gap analysis of your current knowledge, experience, and skill set to this future job. What are you missing? How can you learn more in the areas you’re deficient? Is there an opportunity to integrate this new knowledge into your current job? This helps you learn by doing under the supervision of your manager’s feedback.
To be successful in our career and in life, we must take control of continuous education by creating a custom curriculum for our career and life. We can always learn new ideas on how to be more organized at work or at home. If we’re having problems with mindfulness or spirituality, we can always research books, magazines, blogs, or podcasts to help us find our way.
All it takes is reading your first book to get over your own inertia.
Additional Reading
- 23 Ways to be Happy at Work: #16 – Read It
- 23 Ways to be Happy at Work: #9 – Try something new to get different results
- 23 Ways to be Happy at Work: #4 – Work Can be Play
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The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management series outlines my rules of personal and work success. After reflecting on my personal values, I made this list, realizing values are my rules of being or life management principles. Based on your experiences, I hope this list inspires you to identify your own rules. Here are the rules to my success that may help you over the course of your journey:
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: Overview of the Pyramid and Its Levels
Level 1: Rules for Our Fundamental Nature
- #1 Find your own spirituality and practice it.
- #2 Know what you want or the Universe (or God) won’t know what to send you: If you don’t know what you want, how can you get to where you want to be?
- #3 Fate or free will? Regardless of what you believe, we all have a purpose to being here. The tricky part is discovering what it is.
- #4 Don’t wait for your future to happen to you, you have to be vigilant in making your future happen.
- #5 Understand your dark side, but don’t give into it or indulge it.
- #6 Aspire to always help and teach others.
Level 2: Rules of Continuous Learning and Modeling
- #7 Watch or read media sources when you need inspiration. Reflect on why you like a certain movie or TV show, so you understand why it moves you.
- #8 Always be learning. Continue learning through books or any source that gives you new ideas on how to approach your work or feeds your passion.
- #9 Become self aware. If you aren’t, then how will you know you’re screwing up?
- #10 Accept responsibility and make peace with your decisions and the consequences of those decisions. They have created the person you are today. The trick is, do you like what you’ve created? If not, then how can you change?
- #11 Keep a lid on chaos. Never let situations or emotions get away from you. Be the calm in the eye of the storm as strength, reflecting confidence for the most vulnerable people in your life.
Level 3: Rules for the Actual Journey
- #12 Stay still and don’t move if you feel lost, so you can find yourself or let the opportunity find you.
- #13 Always be course correcting.
- #14 Surround yourself with trusted and loyal friends. Be prepared to deal with betrayal without ambivalence. But be prepare to forgive (if the person is sincere, I mean really sincere).
- #15 Learn to channel your inner extrovert, if you’re an introvert. Learn to channel your inner introvert, if you’re an extrovert.
Level 4: Rules of Adapting to Environment and Interacting with Others
- #16 Make peace with your weaknesses. We’re not perfect. Even your strengths will turn into weaknesses. The trick is knowing when your strength has become a weakness.
- #17 Master your emotions and body language. Use them strategically in life and work.
- #18 Mentor yourself via the Space Time Continuum. What would your future self tell your present self? How can you get back on track? What have you done well? What more can you do? What would you tell yourself as a child, teen, 20 or 30 something?
Level 5: Rules of Humility
- #19 Never take your success for granted. Always prepare for the worst case scenarios. Be prepared for two steps forward and one step back.
- #20 Be humble. Treat others well, don’t be arrogant, and don’t drink your own Kool-Aid.
Level 6: Rule of Being
- #21 Be compassionate.
Similar Posts:
- How to Assess Your Career – Identifying your Roles and Goals for each Career Stage Pt 2
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: Overview of the Pyramid and Its Levels
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #6 Aspire to always help and teach others
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #10 Accept Responsibility for Your Decisions
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management
