6 Tips For Upgrading Yourself: Keep Ahead Of Your Game.

6 Tips For Upgrading Yourself: Keep Ahead Of Your Game.

Wow. Dropbox just upgraded my service for free to 1 Terabyte or 1000 GB. That’s some serious storage.

I’m glad they did this. But, they had to,  in order to compete with storage offered by Google Drive.

It got me thinking about our own careers, our personal brands, and how important it is for all of us to keep ahead of our game.

Dropbox logoTo do so today, it means above all else, adopting a value to be a continual learner. Forever.

Why?

It used to take 100 years to double the world’s knowledge. Think about that! Just three generations ago, your great grandparents lived in a reasonably stable world. What was ‘right’ and known in the generation before theirs was more or less the same as the one they were living.

Yet, fast forward to today and according to IBM, the rate has changed so dramatically, that we double our knowledge every 12 months.

Feeling overwhelmed? Understandably.

Here are 6 easy suggestions for upgrading yourself and to keep you ahead of the pack

1. Massive Open Online Courses MOOCs. (Visit Half Yearly.)

coursera-logoWith the flexibility of online learning and the high cost of attending Colleges and Universities, it’s pretty easy to freely attend Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs ) from very prestigious intuitions. You can acquire the same knowledge without forking out hundreds of thousands of dollars or giving up years to acquire the knowledge.

While you might not have the formal qualifications after your name to show for it, you can still evidence that you successfully completed MOOC courses from any one of these popular sites: Coursera, Udacity or edX.

There are millions of people around the world gaining knowledge through MOOCs.

Free education. From the best schools. Hello!

2. Continual Professional Development. (Visit Yearly.)

Depending on your country, many professions such as such as Accounting, Engineering, Law, Medicine and Financial Planning, require evidence that their members maintain their knowledge to a standard.

There are a growing number of offerings helping people maintain their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) online.

A leader in the field is CPDLive. Instead of the inconvenience of assocation members attending a course across town or interstate, sites like CPDLive, help people attend and learn course content for CPD points remotely.

Associations hold their own certifications too. Whilst there are thousands like this, one example of course work run directly by the association/roof body is SHRM who advertise accreditation for HR professionals to be recognises and practice in USA.

3. LinkedIn Groups. (Visit Weekly.)

Although the learning you can gain is much more diffuse and ad hoc, you can still improve your knowledge by being part of many LinkedIn Groups.

I suggest that you evaluate the thousands of Groups in LinkedIn, based on your interests, the activity within each Group, its relevance to your interests and geography.

I recommend you join no more than a handful that you can genuinely contribute.

But with the gravitas that LinkedIn has world wide – it makes sense to have this as part of your continual development portfolio.

4. Watch TED and Vimeo. (Visit Monthly.)

Both TED and Vimeo are powerhouse sites.

Some people have become world wide phenomena based on their TED talks. Start with the top 20 most popular TED talks of all time. Then pursue your interests after that.

Can’t get enough? TED also, is available in the iTunes and Google Play App Store.

In a nutshell, Vimeo is YouTube without advertisements.

Vimeo has a multitudes of channels: with Education and DIY having 30,200 alone! And just within that channel, there is the choice of a range of content such as videos from Tufts and Michigan Universities and then some.

5. Subscriptions (Visit Monthly.)

Lynda logoPaid subscriptions can also be a great way you can learn. The cost of involvement can be somewhat nominal, but the insights and learning can be extraordinary.

I personally like Lynda for a large library of high standard, practical and varied courses.

I am also a fan of Mixergy, with Andrew Warner’s interviews of leading entrepreneurs.

6. Amazon. (Visit Monthly.)

AmazonFor anyone who likes to read – whether in hard copy of on their devices, ubiquitous, ever game-changing Amazon keeps you up to date with weekly email suggestions about what’s hot, relevant and popular in your chosen fields.

It’s the planet’s most accessible and vast online bookstore…and then some. Hear of a book? Instantly download it to your device and start reading.

If you don’t have an Amazon Account yet, it’s free to set up and utterly addictive.

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So keeping ahead of the pack is easier than ever before. With the continual growth and innovation in all these suggested areas, it will certainly get easier.

What’s your favourite way of developing yourself?

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About the author:

Greg Weiss is the Founder of CareerSupport365. He has almost 30 years success in HR and in career coaching people.

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Greg Weiss

Greg Weiss is the founder and director of Career365 and Australia’s leading career coach. Greg has coached well over a thousand people from recent graduates to CEOs as they pivot, re-launch and accelerate their careers. He is the author of three practical books and the creator of three online courses: “Career Clarity. How to find career fulfillment”; “Career Networking. How to unlock the hidden job market”; and “Career Success. How to succeed in your new job”.

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