It doesn’t matter if you’re brand new to the business or a 20-year veteran of the industry, learning will always be an essential part of building and maintaining a thriving career. The LOs that reach the greatest heights are sponges, constantly absorbing new knowledge. The moment we stop learning, we stop growing and evolving. Learning keeps us engaged and inspired by our work. The good news for LOs today is that it has never been easier to learn than it is right now. With so many tools and resources at our fingertips, there’s no excuse not to learn something new. Here are a few things you may want to consider:
Familiarize Yourself with New Media
Books continue to be a valuable source of knowledge, but these days there are many options apart from reading books. Experiment with all the new media formats available if you want to maximize your learning potential. If you have a commute or get daily exercise, a podcast or audiobook might work best for you. If you’re more visual, videos, TED Talks, blogs, and articles that you can find easily online might be the way to go. Having multiple resources gives you a steady stream of fresh information in the format that works best for you in that moment.
Utilize Your Network
Sometimes, we don’t even have to look very far for new opportunities to learn. Often, our own networks are full of untapped potential. Make curiosity a priority and carry that with you in all your interactions. When you believe that everyone has something to teach you, you begin to see your connections in a new light. Recognizing that every interaction can be an opportunity to learn will give you a renewed perspective on the power of your network.
Maximize Your Time
One of the common excuses people make for not learning is that they’re too busy. Granted, there are only so many hours in a day, and LOs have a lot on their plates. However, if you look closely, you may find a number of smaller, underutilized windows throughout your day. We don’t all have countless hours a day to read or listen to everything we might like to. By making sure that you always have access to some learning materials, you can take advantage of the random windows that appear during the day. Maybe a client is running late, a meeting ended early or was rescheduled, or as I mentioned above, you have a commute — whatever the situation, preparing for these moments of unused time will help you maximize their potential.
Create the Right Habits
I wrote last week on the habits LOs can use to excel, here. One of the primary reasons that professionals slow their stop learning (or stop altogether) is because other demands pile up. Creating the right routines is a perfect antidote to busyness. When learning isn’t a regular part of your routine, it becomes very easy to move it to the bottom of your to-do list. Maybe you see it as a time-consuming task that will requires more attention than you can give. So, it becomes easy to say you’ll get to it later. Alternatively, when learning becomes a habit, you can create multiple opportunities to take in new information throughout your day. It might be listening to 15 minutes of an audiobook on the way to work, checking out a blog during a break, or reading a couple of chapters of a book each night before going to bed. When these activities become routine, they are no longer obligations that require a great deal of time. Instead, they become a part of our daily life.
In an ever-changing industry, we need to be prepared to evolve with those changes. The more emphasis we put on continuing to learn, the easier it becomes to stay motivated, inspired, and ready to adapt.
If you like what you’re reading, you can get my weekly articles for loan officers right to your email inbox. Subscribe today at MD-LoanOfficer.com.
Comments