What are you learning this year?

One of the greatest tools to help us accomplish our goals is learning. We need to learn and develop new skills to achieve our bold goals. As I have progressed in my Life and Career, learning has contributed to my success. I am a strong believer in continuous learning and have enjoyed adding knowledge and new skills to my toolkit.
 
In this blog post, we will explore five ways to make learning a part of your life. For more tips and resources, check out some of my previous posts on learning at the end of this post.
 
Set learning goals every year
We need to be very intentional about learning and building new skills. It takes planning and scheduling time actually to make it happen. When I plan my goals every year, I identify three new things that I want to learn and work towards them. My learning goals are typically geared towards developing skills that I do not have but know that I need to succeed professionally and personally. The process of planning what I want to learn excites and empowers me.
 
Questions to consider

• What new skills do you want to develop this year?
• What are your learning goals for this year?

 
Find learning formats that work for you
We all learn in different ways, and it is crucial to know how you learn best and go for them. I really enjoy learning from other people's experiences, taking formal trainings, and I also learn through teaching others. When I set my learning goals, I plan for trainings, podcasts, or books that will help me.
 
Questions to consider

• How can you learn the new skills that you need? 
• What mediums of learning help you the most?

 
Find your learning community
Having accountability partners is crucial to maintaining your learning mindset and accomplishing your learning. Knowing that you have people around you who support and encourage you to stick to your learning goals increases your chances of achieving them. I feel fortunate to have a community of people who enjoy learning and work towards their own goals. They provide me with motivation and support while I continue my learning journey.
 
Questions to consider

• Who could be part of your learning community?
• How will you make sure you stay connected to them? 

 
Share what you learned
In my experience, one way to amplify your learning is to share what you learned with others. Whenever I learn something new, I make it a point to write a quick summary and share it with people around me. Professionally, I get to share my knowledge with my team and mentees. In my private life, this blog is an amazing medium for me to share my learnings as well. It is great to be able to deepen my learning by sharing with others.
 
Questions to consider

• Who can you share your knowledge with? 
• How will you make sure you share what you learn?  

 
Continue learning
To thrive and accomplish all our goals, we have a lot of learning to do. It is crucial for us always to be learning something new. Unlike when we were studying for degrees, we get to choose what we learn, when, and how. There are so many great resources available to support us on our learning journey.
 
Questions to consider

• What will help you stay motivated to learn continuously? 
• How will you make time to learn new things continuously? 

 
Final Thoughts
This year my professional learning goals are to develop my skills around leading teams and impact programs at scale, driving sustainable organizational culture change. And in my personal life, I want to learn about storytelling and writing a book. I am very excited to learn awesome things this year and continue growing.
 
Call to Action

• What do you need to learn to be successful? Identify the skills that you want to develop
• How are you going to learn? Find a mode of learning that works for you
• How can you make sure you learn something? Commit to learning something new in the next quarter

 
Great Resources

• Video: Continuous Learning as a Tool to Build your Career
• Build your Toolkit: Learning new Skills
• How to be a life-long Learner
• How to Develop a Growth Mindset
• How to start your self-development journey