You Are Here: Learn Something New to Continue To Be Your Best

 

This is a part of a series I created entitled, You Are Here. It explores topics that we all deal with: thought leadership, personal growth/development, work culture, and business relationships. It’s designed to meet you where you are in life and provide you with the encouragement to help make your life better, starting right now…you can do it!

Welcome to a new year! It’s exciting, isn’t it? You’re right at the edge of a new year and it feels so invigorating and empowering. Here you find yourself at a crossroads: no longer content to sit by the sidelines, this is that special time of year that serves as a motivator. Finally, this is the time for you to achieve what you’ve always dreamed of!

It can be intimidating to take on a new proficiency or tackle a fresh version of yourself. Whether it’s a small change, such as adding a new skill to make you more marketable or a complete transformation. In order to keep from getting tripped up before you even begin, here are a few steps that can help get you on the right path right from the start.

First, you need to begin. You may have been contemplating a change for a while before you actually put things into motion but now that you know you want to begin you have to be willing to fail. Sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? But if you’re not willing to be bored or frustrated or disappointed by the steep learning curve that comes with a new skill, then it will be hard to get to the finish line.

I remember when I first started in the IT field as a temporary worker in one of the largest conglomerates in my home country, Jamaica. As a trainee, I had to prove myself in a very complex and fast changing job, so I often stayed late to work on my own time and practice building computers, loading the Operating Systems and the software programs. Soon I was seen as a go to person and the company invested in my education, allowing me to start night classes at the University.

I took my knowledge and expertise and continued to build on it, choosing to acquire a deep understanding of technology and mastering the fundamentals. I continue to hone my skills and always believe that I can learn from others. I seek out ways to improve what I’ve already learned while working to make a process or solution even better.

My only goal ‘is to know’ and fully understand what I am doing, so I can improve and work smarter.

 

You need to know how to improve. Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist and author of Thinking Fast and Slow, says that,”…acquisition of skills requires a regular environment, an adequate opportunity to practice, and rapid and unequivocal feedback about the correctness of thoughts and actions.”

If your goal is to improve your tennis serve, then practicing your serve everyday for three months won’t necessarily create the improvement you’re looking for. That’s because practicing the same thing over and over, without knowing how to improve will not work.

You need to practice with purpose. To be able to turn knowledge into skill, you must practice with an improvement blueprint in mind. This is because when you do something repeatedly, you rewire your brain. In other words, learning a new skill is doing the new skill. Practicing in a proactive way that aligns with the blueprint will make all the difference, serving as a launching pad to push you even farther.

 

 

 

Accept qualified feedback on your improvement. You have the motivation, you know what to do in order to get better and you are putting your skills into practice. The last piece of the puzzle is to be open to feedback on your actions. You do not want to be limited by your own narrow viewpoint. You cannot see yourself at a 360 degree angle, so there will always be blind spots. Joseph Weintraub, a professor of management and organizational behavior at Babson College and coauthor of the book, The Coaching Manager: Developing Top Talent in Business says, “Ask yourself: “Who in my organization, other than my boss, would notice my changes and give me honest feedback?” When you have someone you trust to offer constructive criticism, it can bring your new skills even quicker into alignment.

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.” ~ Tim Duncan