As I entered July 2023, I felt like I needed to make a change to my daily routine. I am one of those “early birds” who does not need an alarm to wake up and I have the greatest amount of energy first thing in the morning. I work remote most of the time and felt like my morning routine was getting pretty stale. I would brew my coffee, feed the dogs, hop on my computer (many mornings before 5am) until 7am before a quick workout and then get back to work. I found most of my days that I was stuck on the computer and was not any more productive than days I would wait until later in the morning to start working. I could tell it was time for a change and decided to create a mid-year resolution.
Why did I make a resolution? I had not made a mid-year resolution in previous years, but I felt like I was getting into a rut professionally and wanted to change what I was currently doing. I thought if not now than when. I would say that I am the furthest thing from impulsive, but I felt like this was a good plan to implement quickly.
What was my resolution? Well, I decided that I would learn something new weekly. The weekly turned into most days of the week. I leveraged LinkedIn learning to find topics of interest and kept them to 45 minutes or less.
How did I create my plan? I reviewed a few sites where I had done previous learning- Coursera, LinkedIn Learning and Khan Academy to get some ideas. I thought I would be more motivated to see daily results and I settled on LinkedIn learning. I reviewed the website and saved some trainings of interest. I picked four areas of focus: leadership, personal growth, negotiation, productivity tools and resources.
Where am I now? I have learned three-four new things weekly (which has been great). Last week, I leveraged a sales negotiation learning to help give me some fresh ideas for client contract negotiations. Also, I have found several more interesting content creators to follow on LinkedIn. This has been a great add to my daily routine and it has upgraded my thinking.
I realize that it may not be sustainable every week, but I can always learn one new thing weekly, read a book or connect with someone new.
There is always an opportunity to learn and grow!
“Always walk through life as you have something new to learn, and you will.”
Vernon Howard