How do you keep learning once you leave the academic setting? Is learning a priority for you or are you content with the knowledge you have?
Because we’re living in a world of continuous change, companies must continuously adapt to keep up. Businesses prefer to hire talent with the ability to continuously grow and learn.
What does this mean for you? Now more than ever it's essential to adopt an apprentice mindset to keep up with changing technologies and environments. With this new mindset, you’ll stay ahead of the pack.
The essence of this new apprenticeship mindset is to arrange work and life so both are focused on the need to grow. (Tweet this) Before you can be truly successful, you must first learn to grow yourself. Apprentices seek out opportunities for learning by doing work within a community of practice – often this looks like a job with a company that promotes a culture of learning.
Learn how to learn.
“I’m still just getting started and excited to learn everything I can” is the mantra of the growth-minded apprentice. And it’s becoming the mantra of millennials throughout the workforce. Regardless of your craft or calling, embracing these five aspects of a growth mindset will serve you well in work and in life.
1. Stubborn Self-Determination
Self-determination is a critical element of your ability to grow and learn. This means committing to learning and never giving up - be stubborn in your decision to grow. (Tweet this) The outcome of your learning is up to you. You’re the one making it happen. Don’t wait for someone to give you the answers. Instead, go out into the world and find the answers yourself.
Don’t wait for someone to give you the answers. Ask and search until you find them. (Tweet this)
“There was scarcely a minute in which I could not learn something or find out how much there was to learn and how little I knew.” - Andrew Carnegie, great philanthropist and leader of the expansion of the U.S. steel industry
2. Take Action
No amount of theorizing, hypothesizing, or planning can replace actually doing the real work of learning. Practice a bias toward action and take initiative. Done is better than perfect. Anyone with a bent towards action will fail - a lot. But often we learn the most when we fail. Learn to reject the fear of failure as a deterrent for action.
Challenge yourself to start doing real things, now. (Tweet this)
“There is no effort without error and shortcoming.” - Teddy Roosevelt, 26th U.S. President
3. Seek Out The Master
A mentor is a master of a craft who knows more than you and gives you feedback. This type of person can ensure your career efforts stay focused and guide you along the way. Start building relationships with other people in your field to learn from one another. Find someone who knows more than you and learn from them. Ask for advice. You’ll be amazed how much mentors appreciate a thoughtful question or request for advice and will want to help you.
The smartest way to learn is in the context of relationships. (Tweet this)
“I had formed most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement which we called the Junto.” - Benjamin Franklin, founding father of the U.S.A.
4. Give More Than You Get
As a worker of any sort, your focus needs to be on the ways you provide value. What are you creating? Who are you serving? We learn most when we create value that improves people’s lives. When meeting the need becomes the focus and is done well, success follows. What’s more, generosity inherently drives out wastefulness, because it removes the focus from consuming and places it on producing for the sake of giving.
What we do shouldn’t be about us. (Tweet this)
“You must never think of anything except the need, and how to meet it.” - Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross
5. Passion
Passion is a prerequisite for having the courage required to take risks and tackle challenges. Become so passionate about your specialty - your craft - that you’re on fire about learning for the rest of your life. Be creative, embrace your work and become fully engrossed. An unending supply of topics, approaches, and news developments will follow as a result of your passion and drive.
Don’t stop until you’ve found your true passion. Then relentlessly pursue that passion. (Tweet this)
“You’ve got to find what you love. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” - Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
Will you embrace continuous learning? Are you passionate about your work? Click to tweet your pledge to embrace the 5 Ways of Growing.
Learn more about apprenticeship in our free Apprenticeship Manifesto. Are you eager to challenge yourself with continuous learning? Explore how the DCI apprenticeship program offers incredible rewards in the form of tangible skills and career acceleration.
