Years ago I used to visit my aunt and uncle on the other side of town. Every time I got out of the car outside their home, my arms laden with baked goodies to have for our afternoon tea together, I would sneak a look next door and check the progress of their neighbour’s DIY (do-it-yourself) home renovation.

This particular renovation took well over 20 years and still, until today, the renovation is still unfinished.

My uncle and aunt tell me that their neighbour and his wife chose to build the house entirely themselves and in their own time.

With each new job they faced, they learned the new skill required then put it into practice. As two people who also worked full-time, their renovation only happened when they could find the spare time in evenings and on weekends. However, they were in no rush. To them it was truly a labour of love, learning and patience where it wasn’t about the end product but the journey they took together.

This got me thinking about the journey we take to for our own personalised learning and in so many ways, it’s like this home renovation.

Always under construction, in progress, never finished.

Think about it. Learning doesn’t have an end date. It’s a process and continual. It is something that shifts, changes and evolves.

Learning is life.

The more we know and learn, the more we understand. The more we understand, the more we have the wisdom to choose to make our own paths towards our particular goals whatever they may be. However, while this is happening, the world around us is also changing and what we knew to be true yesterday, doesn’t hold true for tomorrow so we again revisit, reflect and reconsider and take action accordingly.

Learning is a continual.

Why Should Workers Have DIY Learning?

Think about it. Our workplaces are changing every single day. No more can someone say that they have a job for life nor claim that what they learned at school or university many years ago still has relevance for their work. Therefore, it’s up to every worker to take charge of their own learning and acquire new knowledge and skills and become self-directed or an “independent learner”.

By this I mean someone who takes the initiative, considers and creates their own learning goals, identifies the people and resources who can help achieve these and then sets about doing them all the while sharing their learning, making new networks of collaborators and friends along the way.

These people don’t rely only on organised formal education or corporate Learning and Development to tell them what this should look like. Sure, there are times and places for these but on the whole these people are the ones creating learning opportunities for themselves. They’re the ones going on a journey unsure where it will take them but at each step, they’ve come across people, content and resources that they add to their building structure which, over time, comes to reveal what it looks like.

So how about it?

What do you need “renovating” in your life and how will you set about learning more about it so that you can achieve your professional and personal goals?