7 reasons why you should never stop learning

Who’s the most indispensible employee in the company? Not the CEO but the individual who keeps things fresh and actively manages their professional career keeping pace with industry developments, researching and learning parallel skills that makes them a pro at their current job and ready for the next one. As leadership expert Robin Sharma quips, “education is inoculation against disruption” and when it’s time for a yearly appraisals, it’ll ensure you’re first in line for a promotion.

Do what you love and it’ll never feel like work. You know the saying but very few will actually engage in a job that marries our passions perfectly. While there is no perfect job, what helps make it feel less like a chore is to keep stimulating yourself in relation to your job scope. Be it attending industry conferences – the fees are sometimes tax deductible – and using the opportunity to network and build your knowledge, attending workshops, reading books and following podcasts that relate to your field, it’s impossible not to find a way to inspire yourself.

Thanks to social and digital media it’s become easy to connect, or tune in to industry movers and shakers, getting to know what’s on their mind in real time (hello Elon Musk) while you indulge in your daily dose of social media. Some accounts to follow: Tory Burch, Robin Sharma, Sheryl Sandberg, that’ll give you some real insight to what successful people think, do and how they act.

It’s hard to feel sorry for yourself if you’re actively improving your life. Small doses of achievement – finishing online courses, adding to your accreditations – work like hits of dopamine that’ll lift your mood and keep you feeling strong mentally and emotionally. This in turn builds your mental resilience, that’ll equip you to better cope with difficult situations and remain focused and productive.

Few countries get paid to learn but we do. Every Singaporean above 25 gets a $500 SkillsFuture credit with an additional top-up of $500 this October. For Singaporeans 40-60 years old, there’s an additional $500 top-up which can be used for career transition programmes. Plus, freelancers and self-employed persons (SEPs) will soon receive a training allowance of $7.50 an hour when they attend SkillsFuture courses and selected sector-specific training programmes. What’s your excuse again?

Not everyone loves to read so thankfully learning now takes all forms and is no longer contained within a physical classroom. There’s Ted Talk Learning to get you started, LinkedIn Learning (it’s free for a month), SkillShare that gives you two free months and on-demand courses by Udemy that extends a 30-day money back garauntee. Plus, a host of online language courses like Duolingo and Rosetta Stone that offers Lifetime languages, or monthly subscriptions at affordable prices.

It’s actually not that hard. What you need though is 10,000 hours (416.6 days) according to Outliers author Malcom Gladwell to become an expert in any field. While the number is realistically more like 10 years of dedicated practice, what this means is anyone can become a master of their craft, and in turn, it’ll be a way to give back to society through teaching others what you know.