If we are going to adapt to this rapidly changing world, we are going to have to be constantly learning. Always picking up new ideas. Continuously gaining new skills and knowledge.
The alternative is to get locked in time.
Learned that phrase from a colleague of mine during lunch last week. Thanks David.
It probably happens in many professions. In the accounting world, I have seen this in CPAs who seem to have stopped learning about five or 10 years ago. With the recent changes in my profession, that is a long time. (For the CPAs in the audience, think SSARS 19, risk assessment suite, and FASB codification, ugh!)
They don’t seem to be familiar with the huge changes that have taken place in recent years. I hear them in conferences and meetings. They resist and argue and quibble with all those dumb ideas or rules or regulations or technology.
If you are just a few years from retirement, you probably can coast.
If you have lots of years left before retirement, you really need to keep current on laws, accounting rules, technology, new ideas, new trends. Otherwise you’ll get left behind.
So we each have a choice to make:
- Pursue continuous learning. Or,
- Get locked in time.