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It’s at this time of year, when the kids go back to school and college
courses start that we instinctively feel the need to be studying. As I watch my own daughters come home from school, open their books and notebooks, and feverishly write notes, I have a pang of envy for those days. I loved college. I loved learning, studying, and immersing myself in books.
Today, it’s never been easier or more convenient to learn from home thanks
to online learning opportunities where you can study a plethora of
university level courses, you can even
master computer engineering online, today, which makes the academic playing field a little more
accessible for stay at home moms, or those
juggling family life with a busy job.
You’ll have likely come across the saying “the more you learn, the more you
earn”, and while this is true in most careers, the benefits of continuing
education are not limited solely to financial gain.
The expansion in terms of your own personal development and the impact
continuing education has on your confidence is a great reason to learn, irrespective of career and financial gain. It’s also a great way to
be a role model to your children, as kids tend to do what you do rather
than what you say - meaning, if you are showing them the importance of
making the time to study, they are much more likely to respect it when you
tell them to sit down and do their homework.
In addition, there’s a
feeling of internal power that comes from making progress with anything in life, yet academic courses
are particularly good for this, as they are structured and graded in such a
way that you can see you are making tangible progress; whereas if it’s
something you are learning yourself, by yourself, it’s hard to gauge and
track your progress.
In addition to self-esteem and the sense of personal pride that comes from
making progress, there are many financial benefits to consider. When you think about the
formula for making money, it’s actually pretty simple, in that people tend to be compensated based
on the value they create for another party - be that an employer, a client, or a customer.
Therefore, if you want to make more money, you simply need to create more
value - and one of the best ways to create more value is to gain more
knowledge and know-how that you can ultimately trade for higher paid work.
As adults, however, it can be a good idea to look at education with more of
an entrepreneurial mindset than that which children tend to have - in that
you need to look at the return on investment a particular course will
provide. Studying philosopy, for example, might be an enjoyable and
worthwhile pursuit. However, as an adult, education tends to be a significant
investment in both money and time, and it must provide a return. In some ways, therefore, somebody going to college and studying to be an
electrician or graphic designer might provide more value in the labor market than a Ph.D. in Philosophy for instance.
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