Want the Skills and Knowledge to Develop Your Career?
It’s often been said that if you’re not growing you’re dying – that standing still is not an option, because of the rate of change that’s going on around us. If you want to move forward in your career, or even stay where you are, you have to acquire new skills and knowledge to develop your career. But how can you do that by yourself?
You don’t have to, let’s help you! All you have to do is join the Read the World Challenge. Don’t let the name of the Challenge stop you from joining us. The impetus for the Read the World Challenge is twofold – I am disturbed by the amount of violence in our world, and with the rising number of jobs that are being lost to robots. I believe that if people are more culturally sensitive, then the level of violence would decrease in the world. I also believe that if people spent some focused time acquiring the skills and knowledge they need to develop their career, then they would be less susceptible to losing their jobs because of automation. Reading the right books can solve the two problems I just mentioned.
Sign-up for the Read the World Challenge today!
How to Decide the Skills and Knowledge You Need to Develop Your Career
Simply reading books will not change our situation, personally, nationally and globally. We have to apply what we learn to effect change. I have a simple tool you can use to acquire new skills and knowledge. Think about this for a second, and simply fill in the blank.
If I knew how to do X, it would open Y opportunity, and my life would improve in Z way.
X is the skill and knowledge you need, therefore, you need to read relevant books that will help you to acquire X. This means that you are reading to solve a problem in your life. You’re reading for a cause.
Take me, for instance, I have an active presence on all the major social media platforms. But when I look at my peers, I discover that they are getting better returns on their investment in time. Many are using the various social media platforms as lead generation tools. Wouldn’t it be remarkable if your social media profiles were so optimized that you were able to get employment opportunities or secure projects and contracts for your small business? I read many articles and books, as well as attended many webinars that the experts hosted. I followed their instructions and yet nothing happened. My situation didn’t change.
You may be thinking by now, if reading books didn’t help her, why is she recommending that I read books to acquire skills and knowledge?
Those are legitimate thoughts and questions. The problem is that I was not reading the right books, or at least, I needed to read other books first. The big issue for me is that I didn’t understand the concept of virality – how ideas spread. You need the foundation on which to add more knowledge. Although the Read the World Challenge starts in about a week, I already started because I wanted to identify the kinds of issues I would face, so that I could offer suggestions on what you can realistically expect. To learn about virality, I have read Hooked
, Contagious
, The Misfit Economy
, Non-Obvious
, then I will read Social Physics
. At first glance, it appears that only three of the books deal with virality, but when you delve deeper, all of them deal with virality directly and indirectly. I learned an important lesson from the Challenge so far, if you are reading to understand or learn a skill or acquire important knowledge, you have to understand the fundamentals of the topic. But stopping at the fundamentals will not allow you to succeed, you have to build on the newly acquired skill and new-found knowledge, to leapfrog ahead of your peers.
In the first month of the Read the World Challenge, we are visiting Africa, so I read Nervous Conditions
and I want to read Arrow of God
. You can read only one book, that’s all I am asking. I am choosing to read more than one book where possible.
“Month One
This month we are visiting the continent of Africa. Although there are 47 countries in Africa, Morocco and coastal islands – Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Madagascar, the Comoros, the Seychelles, and Mauritius – are considered African countries as well, which brings the total up to 54.
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Read a book written by an author, born in an African country.
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Read a book about your industry/niche that will allow you to develop skills or give you a new understanding about the way the industry works.
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Read a book that will help you to develop your personal brand, and position you as an expert.
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Read a book for entertainment.
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Read a book to improve your writing – written communication is a prized workplace skill.”
I am a writer, blogger and 
ghost blogger. I write blog posts for corporate clients. It’s important for me to learn about virality, so that I can write articles that get more shares. Learning about virality teaches me about how ideas spread. Non-Obvious, specifically, is teaching me how to spot trends, and The Misfit Economy taught me that sometimes you need to take the path less traveled before your ideas will spread. Hooked, Contagious, The Misfit Economy, Non-Obvious and Social Physics will enable me to satisfy 2, 3 and 5 above. I also read Several Short Sentences about Writing
, which satisfies number 5, and has given me practical tips to improve my writing. Nervous Conditions and Arrow of God will allow me to satisfy 1. In some instances, one book could satisfy both 1 and 5, but not in my case because Nervous Conditions was not an easy book to read – it was not entertaining. It deals with colonization, ethnic and racial discrimination. The right books to read are usually not easy books to read because they make us think so much.
Starting the Read the World Challenge early illustrates how important it is to plan the books that you are going to read each month, and make sure that you readily have access to the books you intend to read, so you are not scrambling. All the books I’ve read so far I already owned, so I can easily grab them to start reading.
In the next blog post, I’ll write about the obstacles that I encountered, and how you can use the ideas to successfully navigate the Read the World Challenge.
Sign-up for the Read the World Challenge today!
Related Posts
Read it, Learn it, Analyze it, Apply it
Skills Development: Read the World Challenge
Enhancing Your Career: Read the World Challenge
Choosing the Right Books: Read the World Challenge
What skills and knowledge do you have to acquire in 2016 to develop your career. Based on the formula, what is your X? Carefully choose the books that will enable you to acquire X. If you are not sure what the top books are, ask people whom you trust for recommendations. Join the Read the World Challenge, so you will get the tools to get the most out of the books you choose to read.
