Managing My Career: Education

Original photo by

G Talan

In my previous post I talked about peaks and valleys.  It is a great story with very real world applications.

In this second post, I'd like to discuss education.

I highly, highly, highly recommend continuing your education indefinitely.  Mens sana in corpore sano is a Latin aphorism, usually translated as "A sound mind in a sound body."

As with any career, there are going to be aspects of the job that you like, aspects that you love, aspects that you dislike, and the aspects you loathe with the deepest of loathing.  OK, hopefully not the deepest of loathing, but there are going to be things you could do without.

It is wise, though difficult to do, to pursue at least a little bit of education in the things that you dislike.  Most of the time, myself included here, we dislike the things that we are not naturally good at.  So, with more education and hopefully practical application of that education, those things can become something we are good at and there by learn to appreciate.

At the same time, the things that interest you will. . . interest you.  Therefore, these topics will be so much easier and actually fun to learn.  These are the things to really hone in on.  Even if they don't further your career with your current employer (see previous post about peaks and valleys), it will further your career towards your "dream" job or something very close to it.

If anything, the more you learn about the things that interest you in your current position, the more interesting your career will become.  Which brings me to a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”

Another positive side of education is networking.  This is specific to education that requires a classroom and teacher versus on-line training, videos, or a webinar.  At the physical location you will run into like-minded individuals whom you can mingle with and then add to your LinkedIn account to expand your professional network.  If you do not have a linked in account for your professional network, I highly recommend it.  Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all best left to your family and friends in this specific case.  If you have a separate set of social media sites for your personal business, then by all means have them find you there as well.  Anyways, this plays into the cliche: "It's not what you know, but who you know."  The link is a really good article about networking from a site called Elite Daily "The Voice of Generation Y."

A little Jeopardy trivia, Gen Y, also known as Millennials, is typically viewed as people born 1980 to 2000.

Anyway, keep up the education.  I'm doing so, finally.  I've started taking classes towards my welding certificate.  I have a long road ahead, but I am looking forward to it.

Keep it rubber side down!
Clayton