Your career development can wait...It can always wait.
That is the risk.
No one else will make the time for you to grow your skills.
It is easy to focus on your task list, always hoping to "find" free time to work on yourself.
Because task lists are endless, we rarely find the free time to invest in ourselves.
Instead, we must make the time upfront.
We have to find a way to make investing in ourselves a higher priority, even if it means other tasks wait or are never done at all.
Hope is not a self-development strategy.
But because of work and life demands, it is how many people operate.
Here is real hope though: if you carve out just a few hours a month for your own education, over the months and years they will add up to real change.
Do it.
How do you drive career advancement? I wrote a guest post in Lenny’s Newsletter detailing The Magic Loop: A framework for rapid career growth. Many have found it useful.
Audience Insights
I have consolidated additional ideas worth considering from my LinkedIn audience, including:
Jeff Bezos said “Good intentions don’t work. Mechanisms do.”
Find your repeatable mechanism to improve your own career.
Yes, it’s better if companies support employees in prioritizing their career. But that is hope and not in your control. The pattern where leaders must educate themselves will continue.
Take to heart Warren Buffett’s story on his business partner Charlie Munger:
“At the time (as a lawyer) he was probably getting about $20 an hour. He thought to himself, 'Who's my most valuable client?' And he decided it was himself. So he decided to sell himself an hour each day. He did it early in the morning, working on these construction projects and real estate deals. Everybody should do this — be the client, then work for other people, too, and sell yourself an hour a day."
The best time to prepare for your next chapter is when you are secure. Take advantage of when you have time to network and are not stressed with urgency (e.g. finding a job).
You are the CEO of your own career.
Actionable Steps to Build a Powerful Network
Your personal network is one of your most powerful tools.
I created Leadership Networking to teach you how to build a bigger, stronger network easily and naturally, without reaching out to strangers.
Get specific steps on how to leverage your network to find better jobs.
Watch the below course introduction video to see what you get.
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Level Up is a free newsletter from retired Amazon Vice President Ethan Evans that breaks down how he succeeded and how you can get to the next level.