How can you improve your personal development with online courses?

Do you have a Learning Portfolio for yourself? "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". Learning is a life long process, as you navigate you career and personal milestones, the need for learning may vary; what you thought of may no longer be of use and with the rapid changes in technologies at work, newer skills will emerge. Craft a Learning Portfolio - 1) what you must do - if you don't learn this you'll be obsolete 2) what you would like to do - your passion Carve out budgets for yourself and plan these courses, explore the ROI even before you sign up.

Just because a course is online, doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t interact. This may be limited to comments (especially on platforms like Kajabi) however the course creator will likely keep an eye on things as it’s the main way to tell if issues arise or new content is needed. Some courses will also offer zoom sessions or maybe a community on say WhatsApp or teams. Ensures you attend and ask questions to get the most out of your investment!

Practice what you learn. So if the course suggests (say) a daily meditation practice, make sure that you do your best. Even if it doesn’t sound like it’s for you (eg I thought vision boards weren’t for me) you could be wrong, or you could in trying the tool find something that suits you better. Use every opportunity you have to put the skills you now have into practice and go from consciously unconscious (ie know you don’t know what you’re doing) to unconsciously conscious (don’t vent have to think about it) This will not only mean you get the best value from your investment, but will also help the most areas of your life.

There’s a lesson to be had everywhere, so look for it. These lessons can be positively or negatively enacted. EG “that was hard” can be a great lesson if you work at it, but a terrible one if you never do it again. I love my mum’s rule from when I was a kid and with food here. Try something 3 times. After that if it’s still not for you that’s OK. So look for 3 lessons each time a method of doing something fails. If you’re still not liking it after 3 attempts, maybe look for an alternative thing to aim for. This will keep you growing and also learning. A learning mind is an active mind. And there’s some evidence an active mind stays alive longer!

One of the easiest and most effective ways of putting your learning into practice is to join a local Meetup or digital networking group that focuses on your learning concentration. Not only will it help foster conversations within this new knowledge area, but also keep you familiarized with the most current news, vocabulary, and best practices involved within that topic or specialization. Your network will also be invaluable for sharing new resources, websites, articles, courses, and more to foster continuous improvement.

LinkedIn Events are another great way to stay on top of new developments in your field of study. Just put any topic or keyword in the search bar, click on the Events option, and then choose the ones that interest you. Don't worry if you can't attend live - events hosted on LinkedIn are recorded and available for viewing at your convenience. Simply scroll down to to the Recent section on your Home page (on the right hand side if using the desktop version), find Events, and then click on the one the one you want to watch. You can also find the Event in your Notifications section.

Online learning options have today democratised learning - you are no longer dependent on your employer to sponsor or select courses for you, nor do you have to wait until a certain time till you are eligible to attend courses. Use a combination of passion + skills to enhance your capabilities and create a differentiator.