As a support engineer in the IT industry, the most challenging part of my job is the rate at which a lot of technologies are going obsolete and the speed at which new information is being produced and the amount of information one has to consume on a regular basis. I can justify why most IT gurus don glasses to either filter blue-rays or to protect their vision considering that most information is available in digital formats.
Learning is stressful especially to you if you are not a life-long learner, there is this hype in the tech industry of young chaps grossing 7 figures under 25 and some running successful startups. As much as I can identify with this narrative, you have to understand the depth of discipline and sacrifices that have been invested into the overnight success you are witnessing.
If you are a routine person that prefers to take the same route to work, sit in the same place and perform the same task everyday, and you do not enjoy learning, I believe there is a lucrative career for you somewhere else and you should not be carried away by the success of those that had paid the price.
As someone who had placed his hand on the bible and raised the other hand to declare “so help me God” as I embark on this career transforming journey, here are my few guiding principles:
It is said that change and new ideas are acceptable only when presented slowly in bit-size fragments. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of information to process and consume and being a specie of habit, we just want to settle for the normal routine and doing something different can create stress and anxiety. In my four years of support experience,
1. Learn
2. Reflect
3. Implement
4. Share
Are some of my guiding principles to mastery.
1. Learn
You have to be in the habit of learning and be ready to adapt to the new system as they unravel, this should come naturally if it becomes your habit.
2. Reflect
This is where you should furnace all you have learned and form them into libraries of experience.
3. Implement
Without practice, the two guiding principles will be likened to a wasted exercise, you should spend more time here to achieve mastery.
4. Share
You will never learn about certain information if the pioneers and early adopters did not share their knowledge. Do not believe that voice that constantly tells you that your knowledge is insignificant as your understanding and expression style can create a spark to whomever is learning from your experience.
Understand
We are all captives of the pictures in our head – our belief that the world we have experienced is the world that really exists means we are endowed with the power to make a difference and this should be your mission.