Continuous personal and professional development is your key to the future

Brian Tracy

In today’s changing and shifting society, the idea that one needs to be consistently seeking to learn and grow as a person and a professional seems given. Yet, in discussing the idea of personal and professional development with people, I’m often struck how many people don’t see it this way.
“Things are just changing too fast. Who can keep up anyway?”

“I don’t have time to what I need to do, when would I find time to do anything like that?”

“I’m just trying to get enough sleep to make it through tomorrow never mind adding extra to my plate.”

These and comments like these are common.

And true.

In today’s world, carving out time for yet something else seems like more work than it’s worth. I mean, it’s just going to keep changing, right? Only certain people need to know that stuff, right? Do I really need to know about ,,,,,,,?

All valid points in a world where people are overwhelmed and exhausted, burnt out and afraid for what the future might bring. Stress and anxiety are at an all time high.

Overall, they estimate 18 percent of all adults have some form of mental illness. And most of the rest of us have too much stress in our lives, especially during the prime productivity and child-rearing ages of 18-55.

5 Sources of Stress and Anxiety in the Modern World | Psychology Today Canada

Life has always been stressful but in the last few years, it seems the stress has increased. So, how can someone already feeling stressed and overwhelmed by what they need to do, find time for even more? The short answer is they can’t. Adding to what one is already doing only increases the intensity of feeling stressed.

So what is a person to do then? What can a person do when they are already feeling overwhelmed by what they have to do?

I mean it’s easy to say, “Well, you have to prioritize yourself. You need to take stock of what you are doing and eliminate what’s not important. Get up earlier to find time for yourself.”

I don’t know about you, but when I read these and other such comments, all I can think of is “Yeah, right. My day is filled with WHAT’S IMPORTANT!” As a husband, parent, teacher, coach, …. the amount of things to do already exceeds the amount of time I have in a day!”

So what’s a person to do?

Plenty of Advice

The “Self-help” aisle at any bookstore will provide you with an ample supply of options if you are looking for advice for managing your time, planning your day, getting more done, feeling better, being more healthy. Type it into your browser and you have instant access to a millions of articles on the topic. And, with AI, you can get your own detailed plan for improvement. So, it’s not from a lack of information (maybe it’s too much information!).

So many ideas about how to gain focus and make changes to be more productive. Yet millions of people continue to struggle from day to day. How do some people have the ability to focus and continue to make progress while so many stall after a short while? Are there specific habits or strategies that make a difference? Or is there something more at work?

According to Wendy Wood PhD,

Habits are a learning mechanism. All we have to do is repeat something and get rewarded for it, and we’re learning a habit. In research that I’ve done, we find that about 43 percent of what people do every day is repeated in the same context, usually while they are thinking about something else. They’re automatically responding without really making decisions. And that’s what a habit is. A habit is a sort of a mental shortcut to repeat what we did in the past that worked for us and got us some reward.

So how can we use this concept of a habit as a “learning mechanism” when it comes to professional and personal growth? To be able to, as the quote at the top from Tracy suggests, seek “… continuous personal and professional development”?

It’s Continuous

“The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.” Mortimer Adler.

I believe this is one thing that many skip over when discussing personal and professional development. The “continuous” part seems to overlooked.

We mention it, add it to the discourse, but don’t really incorporate the idea into any plan about development.

Instead we set goals and create To Do lists. In a world that is frantic and filled with so much change, people seek to control as much as they can because, as humans, control is comforting. It all goes back to the amygdala and the “Fight, Flight, or Freeze” that often takes over during times of high stress. When we accomplish something, like checking off something on our To Do List or meet one of our set goals, we feel that sense of accomplishment – the dopamine hit that makes us feel good. But it’s also this same feeling that often distracts us as we seek out these dopamine hits through various ways – social media being one of the biggest sources of this.

What does this have to do with personal/professional development and continuous learning?

It’s not an Event – It’s a Journey

It’s incremental growth, accumulating over time without the dopamine hits that have become so much a part of what drives people. It’s a habit, much like a morning or evening routine. It’s not an “event”, which is what people get use to when seeking an update on social media or checking that To Do List item.

As a leader, my experience is that people see PD as an event, something to check off on the list of duties to be carried out – whether it’s training for some new program or new equipment that is to be used or some form of attendance at some event, like a conference. Once done, they go back to what they were doing, mostly. There are some who may take a few tidbits and ideas to use, but mostly people do go back to what they were doing.

It’s the way PD has been set up. As an event.

But for change to happen, there needs to be more than an event, or even a series of events.

What are some factors for continuous growth and development? Below are 5 that I believe are essential for continuous growth which I have used as a leader on my journey of continuous growth and which I have used with others as I have supported.

1. Clarity – What is the focus of this learning? What is the goal? Do you have a why? How will this support you? How do you see this fitting into your life? How will you know you are making progress?
2. Reflection – Are you making progress on your what? Are your What and your Why still congruent? Is your focus still important or is there need for a course correction? How are you tracking your progress?
3. Skill Development – Is the learning helping you to develop the skills you want/need? What is the point of the development? What skills do you need to support your main focus?
4. Feedback – do you have any way to get feedback on your development? Is it accurate feedback? Does it help you in making progress? Is it specific to what you want? Do you know what to ask in order to get feedback for growth?
5. Resilience – Can you manage setbacks and make changes along the way toward your goal? Do you have a support system to help you when you do have setbacks? Are the people surrounding you helping you in your development and growth.

Each of the 5 Factors are part of the habit of continuous learning. They combine to support learning that doesn’t rely on events or outside demands for learning.

Next week, I’ll delve more deeply into each of these factors as part of a comprehensive plan for continuous learning and development because

Every Day is a PD Day.