Pay-off: A short guide to what it’s worth learning next
Investment: 4 minutes

Here’s my top five:

How to think (far beyond your default level of thinking)
How to learn fast
How to identify and solve the right problems
How to lead
How to sell

These, I think, are perhaps the top five most important life, career and business skills available for you to learn and improve. They complement each other too. When one goes up they all go up a a few notches. And notice how typically, they were never taught to us at school.

Who’s future do you care about?

Got kids, a team, or anyone else who’s performance you care about?
If you have kids, I can’t emphasise strongly enough how important it is to help them learn these five for their future, and the pivotal decisions they’ll face along the way.

Are they learning them at school? Probably not enough.

Are you developing them all at work? Probably not enough.

Of course, it’s not just kids and ourselves that benefit from improving these, it’s everyone around you too.

These skills are highly valuable right now, and will put anyone in a stronger position to survive and thrive as they face the future and head into the unknown.

Here’s some ideas to start improving each:

We learn how to think…

when we are forced to think for ourselves
when we help others learn how to think (don’t do their thinking for them! When you can, help them figure things out)
by learning and reading
by asking intelligent, different questions to ourselves
by forcing more ideas and thoughts out than we currently have
by hypothesising, asking ‘what if’ and by exploring opposites and alternatives to our thoughts
when we learn how to learn fast, tackle the right problems, lead and shape the thinking of others, and learn to sell

We learn how to learn…

by owning and self-directing our learning
by seeing the teacher as just one resource of many
by trying things out, failing, adjusting, repeat
by noticing and amplifying what works best
by reflecting on how we learned
by seeking out better ways to become more efficient learners
by noticing the results and rewards as a result of our learning (where learning translates to earning)
when we learn how to think, tackle the right problems, lead, and help others to learn better, and when we learn how to sell (of which ‘learning power’ is perhaps the most important but overlooked by most sales courses capability)
more help here

We learn how to identify and solve the right problems by…

knowing what problems are interesting to us
knowing what problems we are better at solving
knowing what problems matter to others for us to help solve
knowing what problems others would pay you to solve
knowing what problems we are proud to have solved
knowing which problems we can solve effectively and professionally without causing collateral damage
knowing that life is better when you consciously choose what problems you’d like to spend your time solving (rather than being confronted by those you don’t)
knowing that life is better when you can see what problems come attached to your life choices
know how and why your own unique strengths and talents are ideal for solving these problems
learning more about those problems, the root causes, the parts within your control, the parts beyond your control
being able to accurately describe or teach those problems to a ten year old
determining the most effective, efficient and where possible the most enjoyable way to get those problems solved (which doesn’t necessarily mean solving them yourself! Consider the entrepreneur’s way of not ‘how can I do this’ but ‘how can this get done’?)
learning how to think, learn, lead and sell!

We learn to lead by…

stepping up and leading others
increasing our respect for others, their uniqueness, their personal desires, values, styles, motivations
helping others to think, learn, identify and solve the right problems, lead better, and sell themselves, their ideas, their services and value
learning how to sell
more help here

We learn to sell by…

understanding, respecting and caring about others
meeting others where they are at before leading them towards the right solutions
mastering the art of introducing ourselves
continuously creating and connecting value
expanding the size of our comfort zones
keeping our promises to take specific actions
helping others to think
learning all we can about others challenges, businesses, hopes, dreams, fears
learning more about how to solve their problems in continuously new, innovative and better ways
not thinking these things
knowing precisely what problems we can solve, how, and what it means to others (short and long term) when we do
learning to lead other people to make better decisions, take better actions, and solve their own challenges a problems worth solving
more help here

Which will make the biggest impact on your own life and career?

Why not start with that, create an action plan, organise it, and start breaking off the first few small pieces?

If you want help with any of these, how to action them into a plan that works, or if you want more support, ideas and resources to build these capabilities continuously give me a shout.

Drip-feed your learning

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P.S if you think this might be helpful to people in your networks, I (and I’m sure they) would really appreciate you sharing! Thanks.

P.P.S More of my posts here