#EducationMatters - Open a Book & Learn Something New

“Unless you do something beyond what you’ve already mastered, you will never grow.”
– Ronald E. Osborne

In life and in business, truer words were never spoken. With so much knowledge at our fingertips through online courses, books, seminars, and more, there is no better time to extend your scope of understanding.

Imagine that your business is water and your knowledge is the river bed it travels down. If you stop learning, the river stops flowing and the water becomes stagnant. Knowledge serves three purposes:

• 1.     Expand your horizons, both as an individual and as part of a business
• 2.     Encourages flexibility in change
• 3.     Provides wisdom and inspiration from those who have been there before you

Don’t limit yourself to business-exclusive topics, either. A person who only studies business will only understand other business-focused individuals and may lose sight of the customer’s needs. A mind needs balance. Time management, spiritual journeys (to include creative expression), biographies, history…the sky is the limit on what you can learn and who you can learn from.

Here are several free (or mostly free) resources available to you:

MIT Open Courseware: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has offered its course curriculum for free to anyone. From Urban Studies and Planning, to Math, to Global Studies and Languages, there is a course available for anyone.

Your Local Library: You’re probably familiar with this place, but did you realize most libraries have access to online courses, ebooks, and more through a company called Overdrive? If you have a long commute, why not check out their audiobook selection? Learn while you travel. If you want to know whether your local library has this available, check here.

Kindle Unlimited: For a subscription fee per month, you can have access to hundreds of thousands of Kindle Unlimited titles with just a touch of a button. KU allows you to download up to ten titles at a time. If you’ve filled up your allotted space, no worries. Just click on the book you want and Amazon will ask you which book you’d like to return. It’s like an infinite lending library since new titles are added every day. Another bonus you may not be aware of: KU pays authors a small amount per page read, so everyone wins. The Amazon reading app is available on all mobile devices and desktops, so don’t worry about compatibility. Many titles also come with a free audiobook as well.

These are just some resources to get you started. It’s imperative that you set aside personal development time every week. It doesn’t matter if it’s thirty minutes a week or thirty minutes every day, #EducationMatters when it comes to honing your edge. The team here at The Social Media Advisor hopes that these resources help you continue to #BeAwesome.

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.

Click here for her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars