To gain something, we need to lose something?

Being skilled in anything requires sacrifice.

Ah, the word sacrifice. It definitely has a strong connotation to it, don’t you think?

Our parents sacrifice for our happiness, we sacrifice for our dream jobs, similarly upskilling ourselves takes a small amount of sacrifice as well.

Whether you want to learn how to play a musical instrument or spend time in a gym to build muscle strength, or just want to get better at your job.

Building curiosity, learning something new, continuously updating the skillset can be both fun and challenging. However, it may include sacrificing a few hours from our weekend leisure time or give up binge-watching FRIENDS episodes on Netflix.

Yes, it comes with a price to pay, whether time, energy, or even money.

Apart from the personal level upskilling, there’s no exception when it comes to encouraging your team to upskill themselves as well.

As a team that’s going through one of the biggest recessions together, you can cultivate a habit of learning in your staff members. This will boost their confidence, give them a sense of stability, and enable them to discover new ideas.

In fact, studies have shown that employees who spend time at work learning are 47% less likely to be stressed, 39% more likely to feel productive and successful, 23% more ready to take on additional responsibilities, and 21% more likely to feel confident and happy.

The more they learn, the happier they become.

My favorite saying goes, “If something is easy now, it’ll be hard later. If something is hard now, it’ll be easy later.”

Although taking the time out to learn something new takes a tiny bit of sacrifice and navigating multiple distractions, but the long-term effects of grasping new information are staggering. 

You could do an online certification, watch youtube tutorials, jump online to read blogs written by experts in your field. The learning world is your oyster. 

Yes, I get it, sacrifice is not fun. Sacrifice is painful. That is why we seek to avoid it.

If you’re in sales, have you sacrificed sleep when you were chasing a target?

Ask yourself, have you sacrificed dinner because you were stressed about the next day’s pitch meeting?

Or you had a tight deadline but had to sacrifice your Netflix time to finish the task at hand?

I slept only 4-5 hours during the first 3 months of lockdown to learn new skills and turnaround my company.

Was it worth it? Of course.

I have gained so many new skills, it is unbelievable!

I currently spend 2 hours on my Sundays learning new video editing skills.

I could have watched a movie but I choose to master a new trade.

The question is: are you willing to do the same? Or do you think this much sacrifice to upskill yourself is unnecessary and torturous?

Let me know in the comments.