Getaways, Monsters, and Helping Others

Welcome to the Skills for the Future of Work! We hope you enjoy our weekly tip, insight, and our favourite new thing. Some of our subscribers say that it's their favourite read of the week - if that's you let us know, and if it's NOT you PLEASE let us know why. We are always on a mission to improve.

OK, sit back, relax, and let's go!

The Tip: Make Sure You Get that Getaway

Video Length: 70 seconds

The artist Banksy is quoted as saying "If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit". We know, because we saw it on a poster in Oklahoma City.

Learning to rest is quite hard, and we often put barriers in our own way when it's time to take a break to do just that such as a short getaway. In this week's tip, we look at how to get rid of those barriers, so you can take care of yourself better. See the details in the video below:

The Insight: How to Make Meaningful Changes

Imagine the world is going to be taken over by a group of flesh-eating monsters. These monsters will arrive in 1 year, and will disable all forms of transport. They have one weakness - they can only move for an hour a day and move at about 5 miles an hour. But you are not currently fit enough to outrun them.

In the intervening year, would you:

a) Do nothing

b) Read a book about running and hope it makes you fast enough

c) Work out for 10 hours one day a month

d) Train each day until you can jog for an hour at more than 5 miles an hour

Hopefully, most of you will pick option d) and stay safe...

As far-fetched as this scenario is, it's illustrative of a larger point. If you want to create change, then there is really only one way to do it - regular practice. Simon Sinek raises this point when discussing leadership skills - he points out that just as you don't go from not being physically fit to being physically fit overnight, you don't go from being a poor leader to a good leader from a day of training.

Friend of BillionMinds Natalie Wood recently shared with us a great graphic on this (reproduced with thanks to Engage to Evolve and LMI Switzerland).

See how the initial "hit" fades rapidly, versus consistent practice yielding actual behavior change.

That's exactly what we saw when we shifted BillionMinds training away from workshops, and towards our 10-minute learn/do experiences. Not only is this type of training easier to fit into people's lives, it actually creates lasting change.

So before you reach out to pay for another webinar, or buy another book, remember that not only will it not work for you, it won't work PERIOD. That type of training is broken, so avoid it like you would avoid one of those flesh eating monsters.

Our Favourite New Thing

The BillionMinds program is helpful for anyone looking to hone their soft skills for the future of work, but we've seen it have a particularly strong impact on people who are currently out of work or on a low income. BillionMinds certifications help them prove their soft skills and land new roles, in some cases putting them on a completely new career trajectory.

Over the last six months we've been researching ways to reach more people of low/no income and today we are excited to announce a new initiative. Every current user of our platform can nominate a low/no-income individual, and we give that person 6 months of access to BillionMinds for FREE. This is plenty of time for the nominated person to get our soft skills certification.

Applying is dead simple. Simply complete the following form, which takes less than a minute.

About BillionMinds

BillionMinds brings you?this newsletter?each and every week. But that’s not all we do. We also help employees and managers in companies around the world embed key soft skills to thrive in the modern workplace and get certified in those skills. Each of our Learn/Do experiences is less than 10 minutes a day and you can see meaningful change within two weeks.

We work with both companies and individual employees. Certification programs start at $200 and we provide discounts for those seeking work, alongside the option for current users to nominate low/no-income people to access the program for free. For more information, visit us?here.