Learning is a lifelong process…. It is well said by Albert Einstein – “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”

Often I think, I don’t know many things in life and I know one lifetime is not enough to learn and understand everything. But I am not sure about another life too, so I try learning to the best of my ability.

One thing is sure to keep growing, whether personally or professionally, we have to keep learning. Let us make it a practice to learn everyday from everyone we meet and make ART OF LEARNING part of our living. I have personally experienced learning from mentoring as well, when I am in my role of mentoring one-to-one or in groups. I have learnt through the interactions with the people, through questions, experiences and behaviours….so the process of learning has always been there.

What I have understood, to be a good mentor, I have to be a very good learner first. Self-SWOT analysis is the ABCD of mentoring, SWOT analysis helps us look into our STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, and THREATS….Then helps us identify the focus for our learning in our personal and professional life. What is SWOT???

• Strengths include your skills, experience, talents, qualifications, and personal qualities. Ask yourself and ask for feedback to learn about your strengths from others
• Weaknesses are those attributes which deviate you from your goal. You may be aware of your weaknesses or you can learn from honest feedbacks from your near and dears
• Opportunities are possibilities or chances which come in your way, such as career opportunities, upcoming projects, time and space for learning and development.
• Threats are the factors which not only hold you back but also create some kind of loss

How to do SWOT analysis??? Can be done in many different ways but below is a very easy technique to work on it.

S – Strengths – We must be aware of our strengths and keep working on them to sharpen them. 

W – Weaknesses – We must also know our weaknesses and make sure to work on them to nullify their effects

O – Opportunities – We must know to identify our goals first and then need to have an understanding to grab each opportunity that comes in our way. Utilizing the right opportunity at the right time will help us achieve our goals. A positive mind helps identifying the right opportunities 

T – Threats – It is important to identify the obstacles we are facing to reach our goal so that we can find out a way to overcome and move towards our goal.

So this is an easy practice that I follow and I am sure this will help you as well to learn and grow. In this practice we have to be very particular in observing ourselves and making required corrections rather than noticing others and finding their faults.

“Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will.” “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.” “An investment in knowledge pays the best return.” “The only person who is educated is the one who has learnt how to learn and change.”

Learning needs focus, commitments and dedication…

I am already on the learning path to grow… Are you ready join me???