Entrepreneurship requires continual learning and skill development. There are many moving parts and pieces to designing, launching, and growing any business. Those who take their God-given calling to serve their customers and clients seriously must continually invest in their personal and professional education and development.
It’s challenging to know where to begin educating yourself efficiently and effectively. Time is of the essence, so consider following these 10 steps to maximize your time with a strategic self-education plan.
1 – Determine Your Critical Topics
In order to go farther faster in your entrepreneurial journey, you must first understand which skills are needed to make the greatest impact. Each business is different and requires various expertise. Not all topics carry the same weight of importance. Define which ones are vital for your business.
2 – Define Your Most Urgent Topics
Once you have identified the topics that are most critical for your particular business, it’s time to rank them in order of importance. Think sequentially. What skill goes first, second, third, and so on? Which topic affects multiple other topics? Which topic is most pressing for your current situation? Start with the first domino that will affect the others once it falls.
3 – Make a List of Resources to Study
Once you have your first (or next) topic identified, make a list of books, articles, podcasts, courses, YouTube videos, etc. that can help you. Knowing the resources available to you will help you decide where to start learning.
4 – Make a List of Experts to Follow
Who are the experts in your field? Who is already experiencing the success that you desire? Every successful person is standing on the shoulders of others who have gone before them. Knowing who to turn to for guidance and wisdom is a key step in how far you go in your success journey. Don’t leave out those who were successful in generations past. We can learn much from those who are no longer with us because of the resources and clues they left behind.
5 – Block Time to Invest in Your Growth
Everyone is busy and it’s easy to make excuses for not investing in your self-education. However, this is extremely detrimental long-term. Putting out fires today and neglecting personal development may feel okay at the moment, but it will come back to haunt you later. Block a dedicated amount of time in your schedule each day to read, listen, or watch resources that will help you grow. Don’t worry if you can’t spend hours upon hours doing this. Get started even if it’s just 15-30 minutes each day, then expand as you can.
6 – Implement What You Learn Immediately
Knowing something is just the beginning. Unless you implement what you learn you will easily forget it. It’s been said that “knowledge is power.” This isn’t true. “Applied knowledge” is where the true power lies. Take action on what you learn so you can absorb it quickly and effectively.
7 – Track and Measure Your Results
It’s been said by many successful leaders over the years that “what gets measured gets done.” When you develop a system to measure what you’re learning and how the implementation of that knowledge is going, you can then fine-tune or expand. You’ll want to make sure that every activity you begin can be tracked and measured, including self-education.
8 – Assess Your Growth
At the end of each week, month, quarter, and year set aside time to assess your growth and the impact of your actions. As you look backward, it will give you clarity and motivation on how to best move forward in your continual learning journey.
9 – Make Adjustments and Test Again
As you implement what you’re learning, approach it like a scientist doing experiments. What works, and what doesn’t? Is there a specific cause of success or failure? What should you do more of or less of? Asking good questions leads to good answers that lead to good results. Self-education is an ongoing process of learning, testing, assessing, making adjustments, and trying again from a new starting point. Choose to be a lifelong learner and implementer.
10 – Refine Your System
Test, assess, and keep refining until you develop your perfect system. What works for you may not work for others and vice versa. Focus on what works for your particular situation. Learn from others, but customize for your business situation and needs. Develop the mindset to keep refining repeatedly. You may never reach perfection, but you can definitely work with excellence that leads to astounding results.
Self-education is often overlooked and underrated for success. However, the most successful people in any field and at any point in history have been men and women who continually invested in themselves so they could take action that led to amazing results. We are the beneficiaries of their efforts. As you focus on growing yourself and your business today, realize that you are building a legacy of influence, impact, and income that will outlive you and bless the next generation.
We believe that everyone has an amazing opportunity to build an impactful business that serves their dream customers and clients while fulfilling their God-given calling. Most people simply need skills training, quality coaching, and a supportive community to turn their vision into reality. We’ve created a program that offers all three components in one place. It’s called Design Launch Grow. We invite you to check it out and take a “test drive”. Register to join Design Launch Grow today!