The act of
learning is every bit as important as what you learn. Believing that you can
improve yourself and do things in the future that are beyond your current
possibilities is exciting and fulfilling.
Still,
your time is finite, and you should dedicate yourself to learning skills that
will yield the greatest benefit. There are seven skills that I believe fit the
bill because they never stop paying dividends. These are the skills that
deliver the biggest payoff, both in terms of what they teach you and their
tendency to keep the learning alive.
1. Knowing when to shut up.
Sure, it can feel so good to
unload on somebody and let them know what you really think, but that good
feeling is temporary. What happens the next day, the next week, or the next
year? It’s human nature to want to prove that you’re right, but it’s rarely
effective. In conflict, unchecked emotion makes you dig your heels in and fight
the kind of battle that can leave you and the relationship severely damaged.
When you read and respond to your emotions, you’re able to choose your battles
wisely and only stand your ground when the time is right. The vast majority of
the time, that means biting your tongue.
2. Emotional intelligence (EQ).
EQ is the “something” in each of us that is a bit intangible. It
affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal
decisions that achieve positive results. EQ is your ability to recognize and
understand emotions in yourself and others and your ability to use this
awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. Decades of research now
point to emotional intelligence as
the critical factor that sets star performers apart from the rest of the pack.
It’s a powerful way to focus your energy in one direction, with tremendous
results.
TalentSmart tested EQ alongside 33 other important
workplace skills and found that EQ is the strongest predictor of performance,
explaining a full 58% of success in all types of jobs. Of all the people we’ve
studied at work, we've found that 90% of top performers are also high in EQ. On
the flip side, just 20% of bottom performers are high in EQ. You can be a top
performer without EQ, but the chances are slim. Naturally, people with a high
degree of EQ make more money, an average of $29,000 more per year than people
with a low degree of emotional intelligence. The link between EQ and earnings
is so direct that every point increase in EQ adds $1,300 to an annual salary.
Increasing your EQ won’t just pad your bank account, it’ll make you happier and
less stressed as well.
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3. Time management.
One of the
biggest things that gets in the way of effective time management is the
“tyranny of the urgent.” This refers to the tendency of little things that have
to be done right now to get in the way of what really matters. When you succumb
to it, you spend so much time putting out fires that you never get any real
work done. How many times have you left work at the end of the day, only to
realize that you didn’t move the important things along even one inch? Learning
to manage your time effectively frees you up to perform at your absolute
highest level, and it does so every single day of your life.
4. Listening.
This
one should be easy. If we’re not talking, we’re listening, right? Well, not
exactly. A lot of times, we think we’re listening, but we’re actually planning
what we’re going to say next. True listening means focusing solely on what the
other person is saying. It’s about understanding, not rebuttal or input.
Learning how to suspend judgment and focus on understanding the other person’s
input is one of the most important skills you can develop.
Listening
is a bit like intelligence—most everyone thinks they’re above average (even
though that’s impossible). A study at Wright State University surveyed more
than 8,000 people from different verticals, and almost all rated themselves as
listening as well as or better than their co-workers. We know intuitively that
many of them were wrong.
There’s
so much talking happening at work that opportunities to listen abound. We talk
to provide feedback, explain instructions, and communicate deadlines. Beyond
the spoken words, there’s invaluable information to be deciphered through tone
of voice, body language, and what isn’t said. In other words, failing to keep
your ears (and eyes) open could leave you out of the game.
5. Saying "no."
Research
conducted at the University of California, San Francisco, showed that the more
difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience
stress, burnout, and even depression. Saying no is indeed a major challenge for
many people. No is a powerful word that you should not be afraid
to wield. When it’s time to say no, avoid phrases such as I don’t think I can or I’m not certain. Saying no
to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the
opportunity to successfully fulfill them. When you learn to say no, you free
yourself from unnecessary constraints and free up your time and energy for the
important things in life.
6. Getting high-quality sleep.
We've
always known that quality sleep is good for your brain, but recent research
from the University of Rochester demonstrated exactly how so. The study found
that when you sleep, your brain removes toxic proteins, which are by-products
of neural activity when you're awake, from its neurons. The catch here is that
your brain can only adequately remove these toxic proteins when you have
sufficient quality sleep. When you don’t get high-quality deep sleep, the toxic
proteins remain in your brain cells, wreaking havoc and ultimately impairing
your ability to think—something no amount of caffeine can fix. This slows your
ability to process information and solve problems, kills your creativity, and
increases your emotional reactivity. Learning to get high-quality sleep on a
regular basis is a difficult skill to master, but it pays massive dividends the
next day.
7. Staying positive.
We've
all received the well-meaning advice to "stay positive." The greater
the challenge, the more this glass-half-full wisdom can come across as
Pollyannaish and unrealistic. It's hard to find the motivation to focus on the
positive when positivity seems like nothing more than wishful thinking. The
real obstacle to positivity is that our brains are hard-wired to look for and
focus on threats. This survival mechanism served humankind well, back when we
were hunters and gatherers and living each day with the very real threat of
being killed by someone or something in our immediate surroundings.
That
was eons ago. Today, this mechanism breeds pessimism and negativity through the
mind's tendency to wander until it finds a threat. These "threats"
magnify the perceived likelihood that things are going—and/or are going to
go—poorly. When the threat is real and lurking in the bushes down the path,
this mechanism serves you well. When the threat is imagined and you spend two
months convinced that the project you're working on is going to flop, this
mechanism leaves you with a soured view of reality that wreaks havoc in your
life. Maintaining positivity is a daily challenge that requires focus and
attention. You must be intentional about staying positive if you're going to
overcome the brain's tendency to focus on threats.
Bringing It All Together
Research
shows that lifelong learning pays dividends beyond the skills you acquire.
Never stop learning.
How do you keep the learning alive? Please share your thoughts in
the comments section below, as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.
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