Have you been harping on your current skill set for a long time? Well you are most likely to retort back saying you have been on the right career course making satisfactory progress and hitting every target and personal goal of yours.
Step off the Beaten Neural Track
All of that is entirely correct; however the path you have treaded so far has been in the most parts just incremental rather than being transformational. Are you basking in the glory of adroitly dealing with the vagaries of life, it may appear that you have set your sights really high, at this point everything seems to be quite comfortable. If you take the time and devote some of your energies, upon probing a bit further into the phenomenon, you would get to know that by now with years and years of mental complacency or inertia, the neural pathways in your brain have come to be worn to such an extent, that you have forgotten, when was it the last time, that you stepped off of your beaten neural track.
Incremental Learning
Come to think of it, when was the last time that you learnt something of significance which was substantial, when you jog your memory, you would be able to recall, it was your college that provided such an opportunity. And we not talking of incremental learning at all as it does not figure anywhere in the reckoning, it happens automatically when one steps out the front door. We are talking about the sort of learning, where you are standing in front of a task and have a thousand hours of work ahead of you to master the task, which in effect is transformational. The reason for the same is that we are living in potentially disruptive times; an economic slowdown is looming large on the horizon.
When the Chips Are Down
We emphasize taking a giant step at this point in time, and go right ahead and learn something that is entirely new, and could make all the difference between plain survival and thriving potentially. As and when you effect a step change, just ensure you back the same with fundamental learning. To begin with you got to understand this learning is going to add substantial value to your life in ways you would never be able to imagine. A person working in the field of marketing may not benefit from learning how to code, but a course in script-writing and video production could prove to be really helpful. It may not be evident right away but when the chips are down, these additional skills which may appear to be something really extra could help you fight the redundancy that a slimmer marketing department would bring in its wake at some point in time, be reminded of the fact that not using a skill currently does not translate into the same not adding at all to your future worth at some point in time.
The Search for New Skills
Taking the future of employment in your particular field in consideration, you would do well to start preparing for the same a decade or more in advance. The search for new skills could well begin with some serious reading, you need to be able to look and predict as accurately as possible where your particular industry and function is likely headed to in the foreseeable decade or so. Try and read some futurists blog by experts to get a fair idea or as close to it as you possibly can get. Make it a point to check out certain presentations that consultancies make and the material that academic institutions put forth. Mind you all of this may sound a tad arduous to comprehend; it is no rocket science either.
Gazing Into the Crystal Ball
Gazing too far into the crystal ball is not at all required to be able to tell where the skill gaps would be. Simple and plain efforts are adequate in making progress in this direction. Given the technological advances and digitization of services at the moment, educational technology cannot be left untouched, and you do not have to fret over things at all. Increasing number of ways have cropped up to learn the new emerging skills in a flexible manner without impacting your current activity. Current innovations in educational technology have made it possible to render the materials all the more digestible and learning more personalized at the same time. All you need to do is arrive at a method of learning that fits you like a hand in glove and there is no stopping you from there on.
Final Words
In case you are wondering why you not learnt something significant in a while, it could possibly be the fall out of two probable things, either there was no requirement or something at the back of your mind said the task was way too demanding. Well neither of these turns out to be true, just return to reality and there is nothing stopping you from making further additions to your skill set. So make it a point and ensure the fact you learn something which is radically new by this time in the coming year, for if you don’t you would be left lagging far behind.
