How Lifelong Learning Empowers Women
In the current day and age, there are more opportunities for entrepreneurs than ever before. Since the advent of the Internet, we have delved into a whole new world of instant gratification and quick outreach. However, with these new opportunities comes an increase in competition, which makes lifelong learning crucial. The ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons is a concept that must be both understood and practiced in order to achieve maximum success in the highly driven world we live in. Just a few short decades ago, women primarily worked in the home, and so many of them with incredible potential, never maximized it. However, times have changed, and a March 2015 survey conducted by CareerBuilder reported that 78 percent of mothers believe it is possible to succeed in both career and parenting with 52 percent reporting they are successfully doing both. Becoming a mother today is the beginning of a lifelong journey, and continued education allows you to become emancipated and empowered, providing the best example for your young children.
Why Does Lifelong Learning Matter?
Technology is expanding at an exponential rate, and Moore's Law indicates that computer processing speed alone doubles every 18 months. In order to promote your own personal and professional development, it's important to keep up with these changes, and lifelong learning makes this possible. The enhanced understanding it provides you of the world that now surrounds us allows you to achieve a more satisfying quality of life, by giving you great opportunities for future advancement. It also makes you more adaptable to the inevitable changes of the future. Finally, it boosts your confidence, which is a necessary prerequisite for everything else to fall into place.
Adapting to the Changing World
Rapid expansion of technology and availability of information is changing the world market, which is why it’s all the more important to stay informed, competitive, and up to date. Technological improvements are also raising the expectations from employers and clients. They want to utilize these advancements in their lives to make the most of their time and money. Therefore, they will likely opt to employ or work with the individuals who have actively kept up with the times by pursuing education. Change can be scary, but it's important to face challenges head-on, and this can be achieved by continually taking in new information and applying it in productive ways.
Expanding Your Options
As you begin to open yourself to new opportunities and utilize them in ways that make a difference, the inevitable result is an increase in personal satisfaction. The key is to stop putting limitations on yourself. Graduating from high school or college doesn't mean learning ceases. Now is the time to pinpoint your interests and explore new ways you can put them to practice and exploit your biggest strengths. Besides the traditional learning environments, there are many outlets provided by technology to help you achieve your goals over time; from apps and tutorials to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), webinars, and more, there are few limits in regard to resources available at your fingertips. It just requires you to take the time to use them. This will allow you to overcome the obstacles like hectic schedules, lack of discipline, apathy, or irrational excuses that are most likely to prevent your advancement.
Developing Your Competences
The best place to start is to recognize your unique personal talents – what sets you apart from others? Even if your passion seems more like a hobby, there are ways to use it to your advantage. Focus on acquiring specific skills rather than abstract learning, and find innovative and creative ways to put them into practice. You could start a blog, write an e-book or even coach others with similar interests. All the while, you're improving your competence. The development of your personal expertise doesn’t happen overnight. Don’t be overwhelmed by the amount of information and work you’re facing, but rather consider small individual steps you’ll take one at a time in order to produce notable, long-term results. Try embracing the so called Kaizen, a Japanese principle of continuous improvement, introduced to the Western world by Masaaki Imai in 1986. Many businesses nowadays recognize it as a basis of their long-term competitive strategies, but its principles can easily be applied to personal development as well.
Inspiring Others around You
Over time, the active pursuit of lifelong learning inevitably produces results. You'll become more proficient, and the outcomes of your continued efforts will speak for themselves whether you're sitting in for a job interview or just offering advice to a friend. Not only does this increase your own personal satisfaction with life, but you can also inspire those around you to do the same. In fact, according to research by McGinn and others, young women with working mothers go on to earn an average of 23 percent more than daughters of stay-at-home moms in the U.S. Sons are also shown to be more likely to contribute to household chores later in life as a result of the positive example you set.
No Better Time than Now
It's never to late to embark on the exciting journey of lifelong learning. Whether you are looking to enhance your current career, embark on a new one, or just develop expertise in an area of personal interest, the tools are at your disposal just waiting for you to allocate the time to use them.