Lifelong learning

While serving as a judicatory minister one of my fellow ministers told me one day he had never seen anyone more committed to lifelong learning that I was. I guess he may have been right. I've spent much of my life attending college and graduate schools and more seminars than I can remember. While many people go to college and even get advanced degrees, they do so in order to find employment. I was working full-time while earning every degree. I never attended one class in order to get a job. I attended those schools and earned those degrees to better myself, to grow personally so I could be more effective in the work I was already doing.

I sit here typing these words looking at the walls in my study lined with bookshelves that are filled to overflowing with books. Seven bookshelves in total that are literally overflowing with books, and that doesn't include the ones I've sold or given away over the years. They are another testimony to my commitment to continue learning as long as I live. I'm retired now, but I want to keep on learning and growing. So should you.

In case you haven't noticed, the job market in the US is rapidly changing. Some 20 million jobs are lost or restructured every year. Some tell us that the typical individual entering the job market today can expect to have about 11 different full-time jobs in his or her working lifetime. To believe you can get a degree in some field and spend the rest of your life working using the knowledge you gained during your four years in college is a fantasy. Even if you kept doing the work you were trained to do, it will change many times during your working career. As I often say, job security is gone. The best we can hope for is employment security, and that requires one to be flexible and knowledgeable.

Lifelong learning is a critical component for employment security. The more you know, the more skills you've mastered, the more likely it will be that you can find a job if the one you have now disappears. This doesn't mean you have to spend years in formal education. You can gain a lot of knowledge by attending seminars and conferences, asking questions of successful people in fields in which you are interested, by reading good books, and being inquisitive. You may be surprised at how something you learn at some event that has nothing to do with your current career can come in handy down the road.

I grew up on dairy farms. We raised corn and soybeans, baled hay, and raised tobacco in addition to milking cows twice a day. It's been many years since I plowed a field and even longer since I milked a cow, but I still use things I learned back then as a kid. I learned the value of hard work, the importance of refusing to quit when things got difficult, and the importance of being a person of my word. I use what I learned back then nearly every day of my life.

The average American will read four books a year and studies determined that 25 percent of Americans did not read even one book in 2017. I wonder how much they are learning and how prepared they will be when they are forced to seek other employment. Mark Cuban reads for three hours every day. Warren Buffett spends about 80 percent of his days reading. Bill Gates reads an average of 50 books a year. None of these billionaires has to read another book the rest of their lives. But they do because each of them are committed to being a life-long learner. They choose to read because they have chosen to continue to grow.

Each of should make the same choice.