Last night I was putting the windscreen wipers on whenever I
meant to indicate.
I was being flashed by other drivers in the hope I’d stop
blinding them with my full beam lights.
I had to figure out how to tune the car
stereo so that “Country FM” would not be the accompaniment for my entire journey.
Last night this all happened because I was driving a
courtesy car. I was no longer driving on autopilot.
When it comes to our development, I believe we can
unintentionally fall into “autopilot”. What once started out as learning
practices, have become habits. We get used to learning one way and perhaps fail to explore other options.
When you need to deepen your knowledge or understanding…do
you automatically register for a classroom training session? What if you made a conscious effort to
explore an elearning course or talk to a someone to learn from their experience?
You subscribed to a monthly Leadership Journal…do you
automatically flick through it when it lands on your desk and then put it in
your drawer to gather dust? What if you
made a conscious effort to read each article and reflect on how you could apply
it?
You’ve read a book, listened to a podcast, been in a
classroom, talked to a mentor...do you automatically tick it off your list as
being complete and move on? What if you
made a conscious effort to put into practice what you learned and share it with
others?
As I drove the courtesy car, yes I did have to think about
the basics that I don’t normally have to think about. Yes, I did feel slightly
apprehensive in an unfamiliar car. Yes, I did get frustrated at points when the
car wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do. Yes, I would have preferred to be
driving my own car.
But guess what…
30miles, 2 hours in rush hour traffic and a conscious effort
later, I started to use indicators to indicate, windscreen wipers to wipe my
windscreen, and my IPod took over from Country FM.
What if we took our learning off autopilot? What if we
explored our development in a different way?
One last thing…
The phrase “procrastination is opportunity’s assassin” came
into my mind as I wrote this…
Why?
Because the reason I had a courtesy car was due to one of my
electric windows that stopped working…2 months ago.
Don't cruise along on autopilot for another 2 months, how about fixing your learning experiences today
