LEARN ON THE FLY

  Growth doesn’t get started until YOU do…You must move….take action…mobilize yourself.

It may sound easy enough on the surface.  But people get ‘paralyzed’ by planning.  They freeze up by just getting ‘prepared’ to grow.  This occurs because we want to figure out the answer BEFORE we begin working on the problem.   We like to do our learning First, then put it into action.

Faster career growth calls for a more freewheeling approach.  It calls for learning AS you go, not BEFORE you go. 

Getting ‘ready’ often gives a person the feeling of progress, but it’s usually a delaying tactic that gets in the way of growth.   Getting “growing” is what puts you further down the road.    All you really need is the willingness to move.

If you want to see how this works, just plop a kid down in front of a computer—or behind the wheel of a car.  The young child has little patience for ‘learning’ before getting started.   Kids just want to ‘go for it’.  They use an action-based strategy of learning as they go.  And that enables them to master the machine much quicker than most adults who are also starting from scratch. 

Active pursuit of your personal development goals provides a steady stream of feedback.  Actually doing things---trying out different approaches—gives you hard data on what works and what doesn’t.  Mobility is the secret.  Constant movement keeps you supplied with fresh answers.  Forward motion feeds you new insights.

Of course-- allowing yourself to learn on the fly carries a price: You must also become more willing to make mistakes.  More trials mean you can expect more errors.  Going forward before you have everything figured out generates a potentially higher failure rate.

But here’s the payoff—it’s in the Learning Curve.   Forward motion offers the fastest education you can find!

Benchmark Yourself

How rapidly would your results improve if, starting today, you did what the highest performers do?

You can take a lot of the mystery out of personal growth simply by studying people who are great examples.  Find people that you would call “best in class”.  Carefully observe their behavior—watch what they do, how they go about their roles, and the fine points of their approach.  Then once you’ve sorted out how they do things differently from you, start copying their techniques.

Sounds straightforward?

It is a more direct way to go about building a better ‘you’.   But most people fail to do it in a deliberate, disciplined fashion.  Instead of analyzing the most successful individuals and adopting their moves, we grind along trying to get better at our own way of doing things.

Fast growth comes much easier when we rely on our role models to guide our actions.  Their methods can serve as a shortcut.  They offer visible proof of what’s possible and how to pull it off.

Why don’t we use this benchmarking exercise more often?

Maybe it’s because we believe the top performers are just blessed with more potential then we personally have to work with.  But those who set the standards—the high achievers—aren’t necessarily the brightest or the ones with pure talent.  Sometimes they’ve just developed a better formula—they do things differently, and it delivers much better results.  Sure having brainpower helps, and an innate ability gives an individual an advantage, however, we’ve all seen talented people outperformed by others who actually have less potential.

Begin practicing the moves of those you admire most and see what happens.  Keep analyzing how they operate.   Continue comparing it to the way you go about doing things.  If their performance really does represent “best practices”, it’s probably the result of several factors, including attitude, work habits as well as basic skills.  Watch their subtleties and weave them into your personal style.

Benchmarking is based upon imitating the best, but it doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your individuality.  You’ll still have plenty of room for your own personality to show.  It will just shine through more powerfully than ever.