Ever since I was in high school, I always did my best to surround myself with people in classes where I would be encouraged to learn more and be inspired to do more. This helped, but part of that motivation has to come from the inside. I do my best to keep my mind open and learn new things, but I feel that I do this more passively than anything. I feel that there’s more I can do everyday to explore new concepts, ideas, and subjects that I haven’t previously dabbled in much.
One of the biggest wonders for me, as someone who has only recently started my career in technology, is that there is an infinite amount of things out there to be learned in my field, and new technologies are coming out all the time. And even though I will never learn all of those things, I still hope to learn as much of it as I can. And this wealth of knowledge is endlessly growing for every field of study, which I can start to familiarize myself with too.
This month, I want to spend more time being better informed, exploring new topics, and deciding how I want to continue lifelong learning, in terms of academic and self-improvement topics. Here’s some ideas for how to go about this:
Reading.
If you follow my Goodreads, you’ll see that I read quite a few books this year. And although I have about 7-8 books already lined up to read this month (and hopefully some room for some spooky reads after), I’d like to include more non-fiction books in the future. Fiction still has a big impact on me, but I do think I should spend more time on non-fiction as well – whether on topics I’m already familiar with, or others that I’m not.
Podcasts.
There’s so much time that could be used listening to podcasts, and yet I haven’t been listening to them as much as I’d like to. I’ve also mainly listened to self-improvement and technology podcasts. I believe that podcasts will be a great opportunity to find new subjects to learn about.
Projects.
Working on personal projects can be a great way to improve and apply knowledge that I’m currently working on. This month, I have some ideas that can help me with some concepts and skills that I’ve been working on. Finding applications to what I’ve been working on learning has been one of the best ways to help understand and master topics, so I would like to work on one this month.
Courses.
There are so many courses online that I could be taking better advantage of. Tech courses, self-improvement courses, courses on anything I’d like to know better. I made a list of resources here, and while I like to take courses occasionally, I’d like to be more proactive in finding and taking courses for subjects that I’m interested in.
Develop a learning plan.
Since there’s so much out there, I want to start considering which subjects I want to focus on first and go from there. Improving my skills in my field will always be a priority, but what else would I like to learn more about? What methods above will help me in learning those topics? Do I have a time frame? What is serious, and what is for fun? Planning helps me for what is serious, but for the rest, I don’t mind things being more casual.
I’ve always loved learning, but this marks the second year that I’m not at school. I’ve been working on putting these things into my own hands, but I’d like to do better – for my career, for my curiosity, and for the hopes that what I learn, no matter what it is, might be useful for someone else too.
What are your goals for this month? Let me know below.
Sincerely,
Julie Anna
