Continuing Professional Development: What Excuses Are You Making?
Have you ever noticed how often people spend a huge amount of time and effort getting a professional qualification, then forget about developing themselves?
It is a bit like having a winning lottery ticket and not bothering to collect the prize.
Some of the excuses for not continuing to develop yourself might include:
1. Lack of time
2. Lack of sponsorship or budget within your organisation
3. All of the events are too far away
4. The topics are not interesting
5. They are covering things I don’t need right now
Truth is:
1. If you spent an hour a week on continuing professional development you would be doing more than most
2. The internet has opened up a whole range of possibilities for short, sharp and free learning
3. You can now do a lot of development activities from your office desk or the comfort of your own home
4. If topics are not relevant let people know who are organising events what you need most
5. Development is not just about the here and now it is about the future
Bottom Line – A professional qualification is the passport to your success. Continuing professional development helps you realise the potential of the passport.
Tags: career success, continuing professional development, professional development, professional potential
March 19th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Duncan, I totally agree with your comments. It’s quite amazing how people continue to put barriers up to their own learning and development, even in this day and age of free learnng via the internet. And having been a trainer for 20 years now, I have seen them all!
However, what does strike me time and time again is that the people who are positive about their personal development, those that are keen, interested and take every oppotunity to grasp what they can and put it into practice are ones who get ahead in organsiations. And the moaners get left behind!
Sharon