Sharpening the Saw – Close the Web Browser and Open Your Mind

We’re all busy, we all have lots of tasks, projects, things going on. We are focused on growing our career. This could mean networking, gaining new clients, making things happen. But what about you personally? What about your skill set? Your talents? Self-improvement and self-growth? Author Stephen Covey covered this in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, in fact it’s the 7th Habit, sharpening the saw. You are the saw and you are always engaged in keeping things improving, growing and sharper. This could cover many areas including your mind, spirit and physical body. Pertaining to your career, it is often essential to learn new skills, become better at things. But who has the time?

Schedule the time.

It’s important to be busy and productive but it’s also very important to become better. It’s an investment. It should be near the top of your weekly to-do list, but often it is on the bottom, or not on it at all. Also many people substitute knowledge gathering for skill development. You could spend an hour a day on the web looking through news items and keeping up with your industry. But in the end you are looking at what everyone else is, in addition to the news not being very relevant going forward. There is little leverage.

Now imagine spending an hour a day learning a new skill, a new piece of software, a new creative task, something that makes you more compelling over your competition. Your career and often your income range directly ties in to your skill set. However your skill set could become dull and stagnant unless you grow it weekly. Outpacing the competition often involves being smarter and more talented than the competition.

Surfing the web you may find some good nuggets, going to a seminar may spark an idea or two, but nothing will give you a higher bang for the buck as good old fashioned learning of a new skill.

Crack open a manual. Take a class. Watch a training video. Listen to an educational audiobook. Grab some coffee. Dig in.

Close the web browser and open your mind.

It’s a time investment that pays off big. But it has to be scheduled and you have to make time for it. Or your skill set may not grow.

Ask yourself how much more talented you are now than last month, or last year.

Do you schedule time each week to learn? Do you sharpen the saw as often as you need to?