1.  Commit to Continuous Personal Development (CPD)

Personal development business solutions

Nearly every one of the small business owners I interviewed stressed the importance of always developing or educating yourself in some way.

Many of them described this as a flaw in themselves and I am very aware that it also leads to much frustration.

You see, the average business person understands acquiring a physical asset.

It is tangible, it will be around for a number of years (hopefully!) and it will help them to make money.

On the other hand, spending money on personal or professional development is first of all seen as an unaffordable cost and not as an investment.

Furthermore, you cannot readily understand the connection between your growth and the growth of the business.

But as many of my interviewees eventually discovered, your business will only grow as fast and as far as you grow personally.

Think about it…you simply cannot effectively run a $10 million business with a $1 million mindset…

No surprise then, that Continuous Personal Development is on the list as one of the preferred business solutions.

I call it the habit of lifelong learning.

I truly get this because it’s the foundation on which my entire training and development business is built. 

Helping small business owners to develop and grow themselves is my passion and purpose. It certainly is on my list of expert business solutions.

I am also fanatical about continuously developing and educating myself.

Not only because it’s a good business solution, it’s how I serve you best and it is also very rewarding personally.

So how do you commit to continuous personal development?

How do you place it on your list of top ten business solutions? 

Here are some tips to help you:

  • Make it a Personal Priority

Few external forces are going to persuade you to learn. The desire has to come from within. Once you decide you want to make lifelong learning a habit, it is up to you to make it a priority in your life.

  • Develop a strategy for learning

Determine what you need to learn to grow your business and what you want to learn to improve your life. Combine these into your “to-learn” list. Then you can develop a step by step implementation plan.

Explore all your options for learning and choose the one that will work best for you. Remember, it is easy to try to do too much at once so take steps to avoid information overload.

  • Put what you learn into practice

Skills-based learning is useless if it isn’t applied to some problem or used in some way as part of your complete set of business solutions.

For example, learning how to quickly build a team for your business in a workshop means little until you apply the knowledge to your business.

If your knowledge can be applied, put it into practice fast.

  • Read widely

It doesn’t matter if it takes you a year or a week to read a book. Always strive to have a book that you are actively reading and take it with you, so you can read when you have the opportunity. Kindle will help you to do this easily.

But don’t stop at books. Read blogs, articles, newslettersjust read!

  • Learn in Groups

Lifelong learning doesn’t mean condemning yourself to a lonely journey.

Join organizations which teach skills. Workshops and group learning events can also make educating yourself a fun, social experience.

While you’re learning in a group, you can leverage networking and make friends who just might have the business solutions which you’re looking for.

When you educate yourself, you can make better decisions in your business. You can grow your business faster and when you face problems, you can recover far more quickly than if you’re “uneducated.”

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