If you have been in the workplace for any length of time, you have probably heard someone complain about how they are not getting the position they wanted or the raise they wanted. This is often accompanied by the complaint that the person that did get the raise or the position only got it because “they went to school." Maybe you have even made that complaint yourself. Or maybe you have heard someone talk about how they would love to “get out of here." In both cases, the person has an expressed desire, or one could even call it a goal (more money, a better position, or a different job). What they often don’t seem to have is a plan of how to get there.



People often expect an employer to promote them or give them a raise simply because they have done a good job. Well, employers expect you to do a good job. That is what they are paying you to do! What have you done that is exceptional? If you aren’t doing anything exceptional, why should the company recognize you by giving you more money or more responsibility? What have you done to improve your skills? When you go home at night, do you sit in front of the TV or spend the night chatting on the computer? The truth is that the combination of intelligence and motivation is actually fairly rare. Lots of people have the motivation to do better, but not the skills. Other people have the skills, but don’t want to bother to take the time. Do you have what it takes?

Maybe you want to make those changes, but you just don’t know where to start. There are a lot of places you can go to start. Maybe while you are on the computer chatting, you can ask some of the people if they know about any programs. You can also do web search for “self-improvement" or “internet courses." There are many sites that offer various kinds of training for little or no money (one example is The Elevision Network). Then there are also all the online universities that offer hundreds of courses.

Whether you are trying to improve your current position or want to find something new, you have to make the effort to learn new skills and/or work on improving the ones you already have. Opportunities arise when we put ourselves in place where we are ready to accept the challenge. You have to make the commitment to yourself to work on self-improvement. We should never stop learning. Take advantage of the tons of opportunities out there. You never know where learning will take you.