The Importance of Becoming a Lifelong Learner

Markets, industries, and trends are constantly changing, becoming a complex and competitive landscape only worsened by ever-increasing digitalization and globalization. For many professionals, their job competition continually expands, leaving many wondering how to stand apart and stay on top of all these moving parts. Most don’t realize employers look for skills rather than checking your job title or a laundry list of official qualifications. So, what does lifelong learning mean to you? how can you become a lifelong learner? We answer these questions and more below.

If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.

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What is Lifelong Learning?

Lifelong learning is self-initiated and self-directed education focusing on personal development and achieving personal fulfillment. While many consider this to mean that lifelong learning happens outside educational institutes such as corporate training, school, or university, it doesn’t have a standardized definition and can occur anywhere, anytime.

Importance of lifelong learning

Things change. There are new regulations, compliance, and tax laws. So, we always have to be at the forefront and figure out what’s next. That attitude of being a learner is what will separate you from everybody else.

We have to be lifelong learners. Learning never ends.

Why develop the mindset of a lifelong learner?

Not only do life-long learners thrive on discovering new knowledge and using it to improve their customers’ lives. Such individuals understand that being a lifelong learner is the defining factor separating you from everybody else, making them substantial assets to the company. But that’s not all. Below is our take on why you should always aim to develop the mindset of a lifelong learner:

Improved confidence: Extending our knowledge and skills in both professional and personal areas can increase our self-confidence tenfold.

Refreshed internal motivation: Lifelong learning helps remedy motivational slumps from time to time when things become more routine and less passionate. It can help remind you what excites, influences, and drives you to be your best.

Improved personal and professional skills: While you’re busy gaining new knowledge or learning a skill, you’ll often be multi-tasking and using valuable transferable skills that will help you professionally and personally.

What does being a lifelong learner mean to you?

Now, I’ll be honest with you. When I started my sales career in financial services back in the dark ages, I closed many deals with my energy. But my product knowledge was lacking, my competitor knowledge was lacking, my industry and market knowledge was lacking, and I was struggling and not hitting my targets. Then my manager called me into his office. I remember this day like yesterday, and he said, “Tom, you need to get some product knowledge training.” And I said, “Why do I need to learn more? I’m already doing pretty well; I don’t want to get bogged down with the details,” and he told me,

“You need to learn the things that most people won’t learn so that you will do the things most people won’t do and achieve the things most people won’t achieve”.

You must be a lifelong learner to succeed in today’s ever-changing world.

Examples of lifelong learning

• Internships and apprenticeships.
• Vocational courses.
• Teaching yourself a new language.
• Studying a new subject.
• Learning to use new pieces of technology.
• Playing a new game or sport.
• Adding to your skillset during employment.

How to become a Lifelong Learner

Merely understanding what life-long learning is and the benefits of professional and personal development are not enough to become an effective lifelong learner. Instead, you must tweak certain aspects of your attitude to fine-tune yourself into a life-long learning machine – check out our suggestions below.

1. Be accountable for your future

Once you’ve designed actions and set goals, you are responsible for sticking to the plan. If you don’t want to lose sight of your objective and stumble on your journey, you must develop self-discipline to maintain your accountability.

2. Discover your expert power

Expert power is specific knowledge that differentiates you from your competitors. For instance, one way of standing out is to become an expert in your field instead of simply being a salesperson. Meaning that your expert power is a perception that you have a high level of expertise or a specific skill set that others in an organization don’t possess. This way, you’ll make yourself invaluable, not just indispensable, to your organization.

Read how to get started discovering yours here: Why Developing Your Expert Power In Sales Is Crucial For Success

3. Identify your passion

Passion fuels and motivates learning more than anything else, so to ensure you’re making the most of your self-development activities – find what makes you tick. Once you know what you’re passionate about doing, being, or achieving, you can sew this into mundane everyday tasks to stay on track with your overall learning goals.

4. Exceed expectations

Contentment isn’t your end goal with lifelong learning. This is mainly because this goal will lull you into a false sense of security—something to avoid if you want to stay on top of a dynamic, moving industry. Instead, you want to aim to invest and reinvent yourself whenever you see an opportunity to thrive. To do this, exceed your expectations of what you can do, be and achieve.

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