The world of work is changing so rapidly, as emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation change job requirements.
There’s so much uncertainty and ambiguity around the future of work, it doesn’t matter your industry or job function and that’s why, the most important skill it’s the same that will serve people today, tomorrow, and far into the future — the desire to learn.
Many people think of learning as studying, but this is not the case.
When you study, you do normally learn but learning can go far beyond structured or unstructured studying.
Infact too many of us neglect to develop important soft skills when the need for hard skills feels so urgent, even though our ongoing career success depends on a healthy blend of the two.
You can learn from any and all experiences in your life.
There is no end to education.
“While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.”
— Leonardo da Vinci
It is not just reading a book, passing an examination, taking an academic degree.
The entire life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning. It’s a growth.
But it depends on us.
Infact not everyone are open to new experiences and ideas, and allowing themselves to grow from what they encounter in the world.
But, even if you don’t know exactly what you’ll need to learn, you can’t go wrong cultivating a growth mindset and embracing the idea that you’ll have to learn something.
It doesn’t matter if you graduated from college last year,10 or 20 years ago. Your ability and willingness to continually build new knowledge and skills is your most important asset.
Normally only children think as cats. They are like little sponges. They learn from everything that they encounter, whether mud, toys, books or people. Everything is an opportunity for experimentation and therefore for learning.
In this case the curiosity and desire of exploration of the child help in the process. If children have interest, learning really happens.
And that’s the key, cultivating curiosity to nurture the desire of learning and start a continuous development throughout life.
But, the best way to achieve these intents is to make learning fun. Because when we enjoy and love what we do, it becomes a natural, spontaneous and organic activity.
However, this phenomenon is not just limited to children. The most efficient form of engagement arises from intrinsic motivation, flow and passion.
So, as adults, it can be hard to remember and recapture that excitement about the world, but that is what is needed for successful learning.
To stay engaged in your job and career, you need to pull your head out of the daily weeds. Learning about something you’re curious about, even if it’s not immediately applicable to your job, expands your thinking, and that’s relevant to everything you do.
As companies, to help employees, it’s extremely crucial fuel and harness these three components below to make learning an extraordinary experience :
• Firstly how and what we learn must satisfy their own psychological needs.
• Secondly learning must be challenging but not exhausting or intimidating.
• Finally learning must strike a balance between the learner’s strengths (what you are good at) and passion (what you like to do)
Learning is a lifelong approach and is fun.
It’s the only way that can take all of your other skills to the next level and will be there for you at every stage of your life and career.
Originally published at medium.com