Lifelong learning is the first step to becoming a featured artist. In today’s fast-paced world, if you don’t keep learning, you don’t stay put, you’re falling behind. One of my favorite Gandhi quotes hits the nail on the head when it comes to lifelong learning…

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

He is right. None of us should stop learning. I have a thirst for knowledge and I do my best to quench it through learning. I try to learn something new every day. Sometimes my learning is trivial, sometimes it is deep. Anyway, I keep learning.

On days when I feel like I haven’t learned anything, I turn to a little book I’ve called Live, Learn, and Pass It On. The subtitle is: “People from 5 to 95 years old share what they have discovered about life, love and other good things.” I usually find something there that satisfies.

These are some of the learnings in the book that have helped me…

I have learned that if you wait until all conditions are perfect before acting, you will never act.

I’ve learned that if you want to get promoted, you have to do things that get you noticed.

I have learned that 90% of what happens in my life is positive and only about 10% is negative. If I want to be happy I only need to focus on 90%.

These are little life lessons that I find useful.

On the other hand, I had a great learning the other day. I figured out how to make a podcast. I have wanted to turn my blog posts into podcasts for a long time. However, I never spend the time necessary to be competent. I promised myself that I would learn by early 2010. On Tuesday, I spent about four hours figuring out how to do it. It wasn’t that difficult, the information I needed was on the web. Now I know how to make a podcast.

Podcasting is an important technical skill for me. I had to learn it if I wanted to reach my target audience with my common sense advice for career and success in life. What important technical skill do you need to learn to stay current in your area of ​​expertise? How can you learn it? I suggest you set a deadline to learn this skill and then do whatever it takes to learn the skill before the deadline.

All the people I know who are committed to lifelong learning have several traits in common. All of them…

…They are humble. They admit what they don’t know. This is the first step in learning what they need to know.

… Question the status quo. They realize that because something is right today, it may not be right tomorrow. They know that doing things “the way we’ve always done them” is not good reasoning.

…They are intellectually curious. They really want to learn and find learning fun, interesting and challenging. They see life as a journey where they are constantly learning.

… They are willing to try new things. They experiment and see what works. When things work, they use them.

…They are not afraid of failure. They see failure as an opportunity to learn. Just as they incorporate what works into their repertoire, they use failures as stepping stones for other experiments.

… They are tolerant of ambiguity. Learning creates ambiguity. These people are willing to let go of past ways of doing things in order to find new ways of doing things in the future. The gap between the past and the future can create an uncomfortable present.

…Focus on staying ahead. They are early adopters of new technologies and new ways of thinking. They realize that knowledge has a short half-life today. They continue to learn to stay ahead.

The common sense point here is simple. Successful people are outstanding artists. Featured artists remain featured artists by becoming lifelong learners. They continually expand their knowledge to get out in front of the pack and stay there. Begin your lifelong learning journey by focusing on your strengths and working to improve them every day. Taking advantage of your strengths is easier than overcoming your weaknesses. When you build on your strengths, you can make incremental improvements. However, if you have a glaring gap in your skills, address it now. Don’t wait to make the necessary quantum leaps. What do you need to learn in 2010? How do you plan to learn it? Remember what Ben Franklin said: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”