Make Your "Workspace" a "Learning Space"

I think the title of this post is what we should all aim for in our professional life. I'm the first to admit that my job had become rather routine and mundane and that can't be blamed on anyone except me. I have a terrific job, but as they say... anything you do is what you make of it. Then one day, I decided to make this blog and I began to learn new things. Not just how to make a blog and all that entails, but as I began to look for things to post...I began to learn. Then, the more I learned, the more I wanted to learn and suddenly I became happier with life.

Don't let yourself fall into any type of routine as learning new things is truly the key to professional happiness.

But how and from whom do you learn without going back to school? Traditionally, that has always been more difficult as you had to rely upon personal interaction (most likely within a small geographical area), mail, email, and telephone.

Instant messaging (IM) began to change the way that we interact as we could talk to people in real time from all over the world at no cost (except for your monthly ISP expense).

Then the social media revolution occurred and we now have a plethora of ways to interact with people from all over the world! I have to admit that I work with a group of very intelligent and professional people and I do enjoy learning from them, but I also enjoy my personal learning network (PLN). My office and the world has some truly amazing ideas to share and whether you agree or not, their perspective is quite interesting. Yes, I truly enjoy some people within my PLN and some people greatly aggravate me, but I keep them in my PLN because they provoke thought and that is important to me.

Between RSS feeds (for blogs and sites), Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and searches I am never at a loss for resources and contacts. These are all ways to build your own PLN and a lot of great ideas, resources, and encouragement will be shared. If you would like to start or add to your PLN pick out one person you know on any of these sites and look at who they follow and add a few of those to your PLN. See what you think and add and drop as you see fit because different things appeal to different people.

I would also consider it an honor if you would follow me and I would gladly return the follow. Follow me on Twitter: @CareerTechTest, LinkedIn, Facebook, or this blog. Send me a message if you like and I look forward to learning from you!

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