Four steps to building a habit for growth

In my life, I have never stopped learning new things.  No matter the area I have invested time and effort in,  I have always had one goal – to build a new habit that ensures progress.

Five years ago I have met a salesperson who  desperately  wanted change in her life, but was led from the understanding ”A person is good at one thing, he/she can’t change that and all the time you  have is always dedicated to  your profession only.” The salesperson was a professional with more than 20  years of experience in her profession. She wanted to change but was sure that if someone else doesn’t give her this change she won’t be able to make it by herself.

As someone who is naturally curious, I have never expected to see someone like this person,  working on the free market.  After two meetings I have asked her what does she expect me to do, to help her change. To that, I answered: “I plan to push you to learn to grow by yourself”.

And that push came with 11 weeks of the full program, helping the salesperson to learn new skills. Now,  five years after that period, this same person,  works in a different role and is eager to expand her knowledge and skills and move even further ahead in her career.

When working with  her we set only  4 simple steps to follow:

Step 1: Schedule part of the day for learning
We always find an excuse that we can’t find the time, because of our busy schedule. If you want to learn a new skill, you will need to allocate time from “your busy schedule”. This time doesn’t have to belong,  it has to be enough to make you move forward every day. Make this scheduled time your time for learning something new. Don’t use it for anything else except the learning of the new skill.

Step 2: Inform others
You want others to respect the time you invest in learning a new skill, without making you feel guilty. Well – tell them that this time is for you and they can’t use it for something else. It is time, you will have to grow yourself. One of the mistakes most learners make is that they don’t share the learning schedule they have created for learning a new skill. Be different and say  it loudly

Step 3:  Small steps make it happen
Today we are trying to learn everything fast so that we can move fast forward to the next thing. Don’t make this mistake. 2 years ago I have planned to learn about digital marketing. I was not ready for a live course but still wanted to learn. I have dedicated 30 minutes a day watching online courses and fulfilling exercises. After only  2 months I’ve had enough knowledge to build the basics of the marketing campaign. Then I signed for a course divided into 3 different levels and after the test for knowledge, in the beginning, I was насочен directly to level 3. Do not underestimate the power of small learning. Remember that persistence is the key to success. Start learning in small steps and move to the next step when you have enough knowledge and confidence in the previous one.

Step 4: Celebrate success
One of the reasons people quit learning fast is the lack of joy in the process. We don’t celebrate the small, but successful steps we make forward. We only make them and move to the next step to check it as a finished in a particular period of time. When finishing a step, course or level,  take a breath, stop for a moment and say  BRAVO to yourself. I have a small ritual. When I finish something as learning I buy myself a particular,  a little bit expensive cake. It is just for me, and I don’t bother others to eat it(it is 4 ranges of chocolate cake), but still, this is my reward for the finished step in the learning process. This boosts my internal motivation and engagement to the process and the next steps in it.

IN CONCLUSION:

We now live in a complex and busy world. Most of us work and live at high speed. Tee speed is so fast and aggressive that we don’t think about the small things that are positive and are happening around us. We compare with others and try to overrun them in a run they don’t participate in. But if we want to move forward in our own development we don’t need to compare to others. Instead of that, we need to build a habit for growth and follow it until we can celebrate success.