General Education

Why Education Is the Key To Your Success

A Student on a Laptop

Life is like a business. It’s a journey and an education. Business is also like life. It’s an education and a series of lessons that you undertake. When you’ve mastered one, you move onto the next level. If you keep repeating the mistakes, you’ll go back down until you are ready to move on. Yes, there are emotions attached. Sometimes it’s easy to learn the lesson. You simply detach yourself from the outcome and progress. That is, you let go. Sometimes the lesson is personal and it’s painful and to learn is to appreciate that you are above all human.

Every single thing we do is about life and to appreciate that we have to understand that real learning never stops. And you should never try to stop learning and moving forward. No one says they know everything they need to know and that is it. There is always more to discover about ourselves. Learning opportunities come in many guises. There is an ancient saying that bears some truth. It is this. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

How to recognize the education you need

Where are you now? That is the question you have to answer. The chances are that if you are reading this, you are curious. And that in itself is a sign. A good sign. It shows that you are still seeking the knowledge to contribute, to advance and to make more of yourself. That means you recognize that there is still more to learn and perhaps you are wondering if this will lead you towards your goal. Whether you are working for yourself putting your energy into another business, education will move you forward. Doesn’t it make sense to give your learning direction and focus?

Education can make you competitive

Increasing your knowledge is not just about being brighter or smarter. It is about demonstrating your willingness to be more efficient and to have a greater understanding of things. That sends out signals to your employers. It will send out signals to any companies that you decide to work with in a freelance capacity. It may even give your potential customers more faith in deciding to hire you or invest in your ideas.

Some people make out that there is secret specialist knowledge. They will try and convince you that somehow you have to attain a secret to be like them. The fact is and you will discover this for yourself, there is no secret. There is only your desire to increase your understanding.

Realization of your potential comes from inside you. No one else can put it there, because it is there anyway and your role is to discover that sooner or later. Discovering it sooner is what this post is all about. The early discovery will empower you. Learning too late leaves you wishing only one thing. That you realized this earlier. There is no time like now to move forward.

Where do you want to be?

If you know the answer to that question, then you are at a distinct advantage. You will perhaps already have an idea of the skills you need. You might even know the course that you wish to embark on to realize and fulfill your potential. If you are not sure, you also have an advantage. That means the learning ahead of you will be a magical journey of discovery.

Look around you and try to take in the world of information at your fingertips. Every day there is more and that is not going to change. It is an unstoppable flow of information. The only thing that is going to change is the relevance of that information. And that is the only thing that is going to matter. Whatever your business, whatever your service or product there is only one thing that counts. How to make it relevant and how to make it valuable to your customer.

Technology has made that process quicker. But is has also thrown up a lot of distractions. Business education today is about recognizing those distractions. What is relevant and interesting to you and your customer is the only thing that is important. Learning how to distinguish between these is the purpose of your learning.

So take a look around you and decide how you are going to block the noise out, for there is a lot of it. Decide now how you are going to proceed with your learning and what is going to be relevant to you.

Educational Apps

There are courses and there are courses

No doubt the super information highway has thrown up a lot of learning opportunities. There is no end to qualifications and certifications. Some are authentic and some are not. Some don’t make a claim to be anything at all. Look for a course that will challenge you. Tap into your true potential with an accredited course that will let you learn at your own pace.

Taking yourself seriously

One of the scary things about taking responsibility for your own growth and development is this. It is scary. It is scary taking responsibility for yourself. It means above all that you have to take yourself seriously, which is different from being serious! Taking yourself seriously means that you value yourself. This is quite rightly so. You are the single most important and valuable resource that you will ever have. And remember that it is all within you.

Every single wise decision, every single brain wave of creativity will come from you. You will always have a choice. That choice will be ridiculously simple. It will be to open up the idea, or dismiss it. Taking yourself seriously means opening up the idea. It means going with it to see what happens.

The right course, with the right questions, will give you that opportunity. The right course in marketing will cut through all the noise and give you content that you can respond to.

Make the most of your learning opportunity

Making the decision to study is giving yourself opportunity. What comes through will ignite things in your mind that will, in turn, create and drive your development. Once you decide to learn, take a look at the course. If it seems that it is irrelevant to you, then explore it a little further. Look at testimonials. Be realistic about the amount of time you can dedicate to study. An online course does not have the run to deadlines. The point, after all, is that you can study at your own pace. Examine the outcomes. The best courses are not necessarily specific and narrow. A good content marketing course, for example, will acknowledge that in essence all business has certain traits in common.

Connect your learning to your life

Learning does not exist in a vacuum. From the moment you begin, start to link it to your life and business. Relate it back to the things that are real for you. The more you do this, the more connections you will make. That means that the content will become a part of you and a part of your life. Rather than just being a matter of dry irrelevant theory it will become something that is living and growing. This is the point of realization and reaching that point can be a revelation.

A great example of that would be to think about what you would want to do in the future and give yourself a small challenge to gather skills or knowledge necessary for your goal. If you’d want to learn any of the digital skills like programming, design, game development, business, writing, marketing, and so on, you could do that with eLearning platforms.

Dr. Seuss on Learning

Raising questions is healthy

Probing yourself is a healthy experience. It will shake you out of your inertia. It might feel uncomfortable. All challenges are, but what they also do is bring you to a new and higher place. The best learning outcomes are ones in which we are in a different space. We can see things more clearly. You could say that you are changed, but you are not. You are simply a fuller realization of your potential.

You are the only one who can ultimately decide to enroll on a course. The incentive is yours; it has to be. But then this is about you as a person. It is not about your company or your business, for, without you, they do not exist. You are here to make the most of your life. You are here to maximize your potential and to that degree, you are here to take advantage of the opportunities around you.

Enrolling on a course has never been as easy as it is today. The opportunity is there; the teacher is here. You simply have to open the door and allow the lesson to begin. It’s your life, your future and your potential. The one thing you can’t do is to ignore that potential. You will never know what you can achieve until you give it your best shot.

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Danuta Smoluk is a teacher with over three decades of experience teaching both children and adults. She specializes in teaching the Polish language to English-speakers. She has a master's degree in primary and early childhood education from WSP Słupsk (currently Pomeranian University in Słupsk) and had her degree validated by University of Toronto. Aside from education, she also has an interest in real estate and home improvement. She has planned and supervised many house renovations. She loves interior design, cooking, and gardening.

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