Unlock your learning potential during this lock down period

Written by : Mr. Govinda Biswas, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we crossed over 2 weeks of time under lock down period, it’s time to ask ourselves whether this period should be all about negativity that is , or if it is making us learn many life lessons, many of which we have forgotten over time. This situation is providing us with ample time and opportunity to spend time with ourselves, to take a pause and ask ourselves, “What best can I do in this period?” As someone wise once said, ‘Till we live, we learn”, the best way we can utilize this time is by enhancing our knowledge and skills.

On a normal day, when all of us are caught up with our day-to-day schedules, we rarely get the opportunity to take time out to learn something new or to sharpen our skills — mostly due to our tight schedules and the endless commitments.

Sometimes, we even become self-assured or at times even ignorant that we know everything, which is literally a suicidal attitude for any professional’s growth in any sector. The only sure shot way to evolve and improve our skills is to keep learning no matter what stage of career we are in, irrespective of the position we occupy in our organisations. In fact, the higher the position in an organisation, the greater the need to learn, as we have more responsibility to learn and share the knowledge with our colleagues and to create an environment that is conducive for learning. This is the only way to enhance the individual skill and also the organisation’s productivity and performance.

Now, let us focus on the key issue. Due to the lock down, we have all been forced to change the way we work, and most of the professionals are working from home. Even after performing our work duties, most of us are saving a significant amount of time that we would have spent commuting to work, which is a great opportunity for all of us to put that time to a productive use. We can allocate this time to pick up some new skills, sharpen our existing ones that we use often in our job roles.

Now, the question is how? Well, the good news is that being in the 21st century, there is no limit to the scope of new information and learning resources. There are many online platforms for professional learning, including Udemy™, Coursera, edX, BitDegree, Skillshare and many more from where we can learn and get certified in skills, with very minimal cost, without giving up on our schedules.

Sometimes, not all professionals can afford to go for a paid skill development platform. In that case, what is the solution? Well, nothing to worry. As they say, where there’s a will, there’s a way! If you’re interested, there are platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Alison, Google learning platform, Hub spot and more. The single point objective of this learning is to improve our individual skills and knowledge, and apply it in our subject of interest. Flashing the certificate on social media is of no use, as it may be like an attractive accessory with no real application in real life.

I am a firm believer of this famous quote by Mr Bruce Lee, where he says, “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do”.

The bottom line of this article is that it’s all about our mind set and the point of view on how we approach a particular phenomenon. Even in the middle of this pandemic situation, as a marketer by profession, I look at this as an enormous opportunity for all of us as an individual to utilize this time to learn the most basic life lessons and most importantly to dedicate some quality time to wonderful person in our life, ourselves. To learn and explore some new skills or to enhance the existing skill to make our self to equip in a better way to improve our performance and also to contribute to the growth of the organisation where we work and nation building. I believe, a talent without an applicable skill is a liability for himself, his organisation & for the nation.