Let’s face it: Working from home can sap the motivation out of self-improvement. Even when you’re in a collocated environment, it’s hard to stay focused on improving your skills, abilities, and opportunities. When you work from a distance, and daily work tasks start feeling repetitive, becoming better at your job seems much more difficult.
One quick antidote to this is to learn something new. I’m not talking about simply watching videos on YouTube or Netflix, although that might be involved. Instead, I suggest that you make a strong effort to participate in professional development. [quotesright]Surprisingly, practicing your learning skills can increase your motivation and bolster your sense of self-worth. [/quotesright]
Even better, it doesn’t matter what you are learning! Research shows that any learning, as long as you are interested in the topic and actively participate in the learning process, can elevate your mood and make you more prepared in your workday. That means you have to concentrate and engage your brain by reading, writing, and thinking about new topics.
Where can you find learning? It’s more available than ever before through community colleges, professional organizations, course aggregators like LinkedIn Learning and udemy.com, and even meetups or special interest groups.
-courtesy Dr. Christopher Wells, Distance Leader Academy