Penelope Trunk earns her living by keeping her finger on the pulse of the workplace, and not long ago she let slip the secret to competing with up and coming Generation Z — lifelong learning. Trunk's advice is to start focusing on your own lifelong learning now, so you won’t be stuck leaning on your cane when Gen-Z bursts through the office doors.
But with a busy job and life’s obligations, how do you find time to be continually learning? The good news is you don’t have to go back to school or take classes to expand your skill set. Here are six things you can do to constantly be learning new skills while you make money. (See also: How to Find Ways to Make Money)
1. Write Articles
When you write how-to or news articles, you learn a lot about the topic you’re covering. Regardless of how much you knew before you wrote the article, chances are you’ll learn something as you research your topic.
It used to be that you had to get a Journalism degree and go work for a newspaper to get paid for writing. You still have to show you can write thoughtful and well-researched articles in order to get paid to write. If you can prove this, then there are many opportunities to learn new things as write about them. I know many people who earn a part-time or even full-time living from freelancing or self-publishing their own articles.
2. Teach Your Own Course
Modern technology has made it possible for you to create and deliver your own course digitally. If you’ve ever prepared a lesson or an entire course, you know that there’s a tremendous amount of learning that goes into the process.
Your goal as a teacher is to distill as much relevant information about the topic as you can into a concise and easily understandable package. You learn an amazing amount through your preparation — it’s true that the best way to learn a subject is to teach it.
You may not be able to convince anyone to pay for the first course you offer. However, if your material is good, then offering a few free courses can generate interest in a course people are willing to pay you for.
3. Write a Book
I’ve never written a book myself, but I know many people who have. Although you may start the process thinking that you’ll simply brain dump onto the pages of the book, you’ll probably discover that there’s some learning you need to do in order to do your subject justice.
Unless you’re a well-known expert, no one will pay you up front to write a book. However, the barriers of trading your knowledge and expertise for dollars have been greatly reduced. It used to be that you had to find a publisher to get a book out for sale. Now the ability to self-publish gives people like Mike Piper the ability to write, publish, and sell his own books on the topics of investing, accounting, retirement, and taxes.
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