You may have landed your dream job and truly feel like you’ve made it. However, this shouldn’t make you complacent. You may feel like you’ve done all the learning and training necessary to get to where you are and feel as if you’re finally at the endpoint. However, learning is something that never stops and even if you feel like you have achieved everything that you wanted to achieve career-wise, there are a lot of reasons why you should never stop gaining knowledge and developing your skills. Here is why you should never stop learning even when you have your dream job.
More Opportunities May Come Along
Even if you’re working in your dream job and you’re comfortable where you are, there may still be opportunities for growth within the role or the chance to work on certain projects. A promotion may give you more flexibility, autonomy or more financial benefits, all of which could make a big difference to your lifestyle and enjoyment of the role. In order to move up the ladder and be considered for these kinds of opportunities, it is important to show that you have a thirst for knowledge and that you are always striving to do better and improve on your current skillset. These qualities are attractive to employers who want to give responsibility to those employees who display a genuine interest in their work and are invested in trying harder and helping the company to grow.
It May Not Be Your Dream Job Forever
As we grow older and our lifestyles change so do our hopes and dreams. The things that we prioritised ten or twenty years ago may not have the same meaning later on in our lives and after a few years in what we think is our dream role, we may find ourselves yearning for a position that is more exciting or less demanding or more varied. For this reason, it’s important to be open-minded and keep learning and developing your skills. It is particularly important to focus on transferable skills that may be useful in different industries or positions. As your interests change, it may be worth updating or reviewing your qualifications. Undertaking online courses allows you to gain new qualifications while fitting in study around your current job and lifestyle. By constantly being open to new opportunities, you may give yourself the chance to work in multiple ‘dream jobs’ over the span of your lifetime.
Keep Expanding Your Goals
We make our goals and objectives based on what we know, whether this is in a professional or personal context. You can think about it in the same way that we diagnose and treat a problem. Without knowledge and a diagnosis, it’s hard to figure out what to do next. In the same way, by always doing the same thing and not pushing yourself, how will your goals ever change? Learning allows you to continually pursue and expand upon your goals and with each success you have, you will find more opportunities for growth and development.
You’ll stay humble
You don’t want to be in a place where you think it’s unnecessary or not possible for you to learn more because this is never the case. Every day, every interaction we have, everything time we read something, we have the chance to gain new knowledge. By staying humble and modest you will be more aware of the opportunities to learn, more likely to try new things and more open to hearing other people’s’ views and opinions on certain subjects.
You’ll Feel More Satisfied
Achieving your goals is incredibly rewarding and satisfying. It makes us feel great about ourselves as well as motivating us to do better. This is another reason you should never stop learning and striving to do more once you have your dream job. Chasing that feeling of satisfaction is a great way of motivating you to step outside your comfort zone and push yourself. Personal development is linked to our feelings of self-worth and studies show that the more ambitious goals that we set, the happier we tend to be.
You Can Teach Others
One of the benefits of learning and accomplishing new skills is that you can then pass these skills on to others. This is particularly important in the workforce as it means you can use your skills to benefit the organisation you work for and create a stronger, more dynamic set of employees. Continuous learning means that you are likely to have up-to-date knowledge and having been through the learning process yourself, you’re more likely to be able to train others in an efficient way. Even if you’re in your dream job, it’s important to inspire and encourage others and training and development is a great way to do that. It is also a way that you can make learning part of your workplace culture.
About the Author
Jade Anderson is an experienced In-house Editor at Upskilled. With a background in online marketing, Jade runs some successful websites of her own. Her passion for the education industry and content is displayed through the quality of work she offers.
