Every day we should be motivating ourselves to learn something new. The only way to grow is to push ourselves beyond our comfort zones and learn. Unfortunately, I believe many of us have looked at education as solely a means to an end. We go to college to get a job. In our late teens and early twenties, many of us are not looking at education as a growth opportunity. We just want to take the classes in our major and finish college. It can be a “check the box” process for many students.
Broadening ourselves is difficult for many of us. Woe to the engineering student who has to take an American literature class. This student many times forces himself to just survive the class. The same situation is true for the literature student who must take a calculus class. Pushing our boundaries is uncomfortable. Learning something in an area where we may have little interest or no experience can mean hard work.
When I finished my undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, I was burned out on school. Engineering school was tough, so much so that the experience didn’t motivate me to continue on to graduate school. I also didn’t think it was necessary to get a graduate degree because many of the engineers I worked with didn’t have a graduate degree. At the time, I didn’t have mentors who encouraged me to continue my education. It truly was unfortunate because when I finished my undergraduate studies there were few women getting graduate degrees in Electrical Engineering.
Pushing yourself to learn something even outside of your current role may actually help you to better understand your chosen profession. In 2007, after working for a while, I was personally motivated to learn about speech pathology. I went back to undergraduate school to learn something new. It was an amazing experience. It convinced me that every person should at least take an anatomy and physiology class. At some point in time, everyone will experience a medical event in their life. Knowing the human body, diseases and treatments, at least at a foundational level, is important in helping make decisions about healthcare for you or your loved ones. It was also enlightening that there were many corollaries between medicine and engineering. Laminar and turbulent flow not only occur in pipes, but in our vascular system. Ohm’s law (V = I x R) not only applies to electronics on a circuit board, but in our nervous system as well.
The economic crisis of 2008-2009 convinced me to go back to school again. I went back to college to earn a Master’s degree in Information Technology. This degree didn’t even exist when I graduated with my undergraduate degree. It was an online program, which made it more convenient for me to incorporate into my busy life. I loved the experience for many different reasons. First, the degree program got me back into programming. I learned how to program in Java and SQL. Secondly, it pushed me to study and to formally learn again. The most surprising and rewarding aspect I experienced by going to back to school was the opportunity to give back to younger people. Many of the classes I took had group projects. I worked on projects with other people from my company. On these projects, I was able to introduce younger engineers to experiences that I had in my career. I was able to share my knowledge, and to help these engineers grow in their knowledge as well. The experience helped me build relationships with younger people in the company, and to understand a new way of learning in an electronic age. It was one of the more rewarding experiences in my career.
As a people leader, I encouraged my employees to pursue their graduate degrees. I know I personally influenced several engineers who I worked with to go back to get their Master’s degrees. What a wonderful sense of pride to know that I made a difference in their lives. I helped to secure their futures because even if a job goes away, no one can take away an education. Leaders should be encouraging all of their employees to grow their knowledge, and to push themselves out of their comfort zones. This education can be formal or informal. There are so many opportunities through colleges and universities. There are also many new learning venues online now. Sites like Udacity, Coursera and Udemy offer a plethora of classes and even nanodegrees.
Maybe today you can learn something new or inspire someone else to learn something new. It may be related to your career or it may not. Why not go back and get that degree you always wanted? Take the time to learn about that new technology that is a part of your world today. Just pick up that John Steinbeck or Ernest Hemingway novel you were inspired to read because you took that literature class in college. Maybe you’ll be immersed in the arts to take you away from the everyday stress of your job. Perhaps, you’ll start those piano lessons you always wanted to take to broaden your knowledge of music. Learn sign language so that you can communicate with someone who may communicate differently. Whatever it is, push yourself and broaden your horizons through education. You won’t regret it!
Beyond the General 