The other day I was "putzing" around in the garage when Andrew, (my "little guy") approached. With great curiosity asked "whatcha doin' Dad?"
"I'm building an atomic fission accelerator little guy," I teased.
"Oh, Can I watch?" (no doubt he had never seen anyone build one of those before...)
"Sure."
It wasn't long before Andrew's attention drifted from my work to a twenty-five foot measuring tape laying on the bench nearby. After examining it for a moment, he proceeded to measure the distance between my left knee and my right wrist. He studied the numbers with great intensity, then he was ready to present his findings. "Gee Dad, you're Six Pounds Tall!" he said with obvious pride.
I contained my laugher and delight and answered, "Well Andrew, looks like I'm growing again."
"Yes" he said, "we all are." And do you know something? He was right.
I showed him how to clip the end of the tape onto an object and to read the numbers. Immediately after acquiring this new skill, Andrew was off on a mission to quantify his world. He measured and measured and measured for hours.
It can be like that for us in the workplace. We have wonderful tools at our service. We have the desire to grow. We have support teams to help us through the process. We just need to take that first step forward and pursue building our skill sets.
It's a new age. I encourage everyone to develop an education plan. Not a big complex comprehensive plan for years down the line, but a plan for the next few weeks. Pick out a system or a skill that you would like to add to your "bag of tricks." It doesn't have to be something difficult, in fact some of the best ideas are simple ideas. Make an effort to learn about the background of the system or one facet of the system; something interesting to you. In the IT arena, If you are supporting LANs for example, learn how print is routed from a PC to the printer. In the process you will find out things about the operating system, LAN management software, and networking, but your objective (printing) won't be overwhelming. Keep chasing your education goals a few weeks at a time. We live in a complicated environment, but as the saying goes "Even an elephant must be eaten one bite at a time."
Don't forget business. Make a point this year to learn more about your business. We use terms all the time like "engagement, steady state, and SLA" but what do they mean? How is your business organized? How does your department relate within the entire company? Who are the big players? Like technical knowledge, business knowledge will help us grow as professionals. It's a Win-Win situation; everybody gains, everybody is proud of the accomplishment.
Andrew is right; we all are growing. As for me I'm six pounds tall already. He told me so and he ought to know, because he still has my "measure-er." I'm never going to get that thing back.