As a Dad one of the lessons I try to help my two girls understand the importance of it’s one thing…

Education.

Now for Charlotte (just turned 12) and Sophie (just turned 4) ‘education’ means different things.

For Sophie it seems to mean learning through play. She loves trying out new words (she seems to have at least a couple of new words every day). She loves ‘playing shop’. She loves, and learns loads, just by doing what seems to come naturally….using her imagination.

For Charlotte her learning, whilst still containing a decent element of play (which is massively under rated in my opinion), has started to become a bit more formal. You see Charlotte having recently moved to secondary school….learning has started to become a bit more serious.

However they Charlotte and Sophie aren’t the only ones in the Daems family who continue to learn.

I’m also massively committed to learning.

Sometimes this is to help us getting better and manage our business more efficiently.

Sometimes it’s about learning more about the technical and analytical side of what we do.

and

Sometimes it’s about learning just for the benefit of understanding more about the world we live in.

However I firmly believe that if you’re going to expect your kids to commit to learn and develop their skills it’s
important to show them that a commitment to learning, regardless of your occupation, profession or skills, never ends.

If I’m being entirely frank I’ve been through periods of my life (including a lot of my twenties) where I’ve assumed I was pretty knowledgeable.

Now I realise how naive I  was.

In reality there’s always more to learn. About business. About life. About everything in between.

There’s a great book I read recently about learning….

Mindset by Dr Carol Dweck

In the book Dr Dweck elegantly explains the benefits of having a desire to continue to learn, develop and grow your knowledge and skills (as well as the downside of having a ‘closed mindset’ – an assumption that you know more than you know or you ‘don’t need’ to know any more).

It’s worth reading and you can find more about it here.

So, as I think about my goals for 2016 I know that I’m committed to continue to learn.

To learn more so we can deliver a better service to our clients.

To help me understand more about the world…

but also and perhaps more importantly…

To try to be a better role model for my girls.

Hopefully you’re well on your way to planning for a great 2016. Hopefully learning “new stuff” is part of the mix.

However as we quickly approach the festive season and the new year….

Hopefully you’re going to spend some time with the people you care for the most.

So whilst this blog entry might be premature….

Let me be (perhaps) one of the first to wish you a merry Christmas and Happy new year!

If you’re looking for a financial planner who understands the importance of continued learning to help you achieve your financial goals don’t hesitate to contact us at Cassiedaems@cervellofp.co.uk.