Continuing Education – Stay Intellectually Ready for Your Next Career
There are many reasons why you might wish to continue your education even if you don’t need a degree from college. If you are between jobs and waiting for the economy to recover then having an extra degree might be just the ticket. Knowing new information and skills could be a feather in your cap and a nice addition to your resume. Best of all, it will keep your mind sharp and intellectually ready for your second wind, or your next career for that matter. Okay so let’s talk about this for second shall we?
At the local university here they have special night school courses for retirees, or older working people who would like to keep their mind sharp and have something to talk about other than the weather. There are several courses you can take, and one I found quite interesting had to do with a behind the scenes look and discussion on various events in the media.
The professor would help the students analyze what they saw on the cable news channels or read in the newspaper and go behind the scenes while working in groups to figure out how much of the news was real, how much was propaganda, and how much was clearly jaded, opinionated, and perhaps even politically motivated.
Although, I chose not to sign up for that course, it comes highly recommended by many of the students going to the University, especially the retirees, it’s ranked amongst their favorite classes. Interestingly enough, they did have a program where you could go in and audit the class for a few sessions to see if it might be something you’d like to do. After one of the lectures I talked to the professor, and he said they had a 40% retention rate on those who signed up to audit the class and came to at least three sessions.
It is amazing how quickly your mind can melt if you are not working, or in the flow of activity and commerce. Indeed over the years, I’ve certainly noticed people who are self-employed, and once they retire, they just were not as quick with their neuron firings as they had been in the past. It’s as if they lost something, they were no longer using part of their brain, or in such a demanding way.
The reality is and I think we all know this “you either use it or lose it.” That quote is quite apropos here. Therefore, you might consider trying some ongoing or continuing education to stay intellectually ready for your next career even if you are unemployed or perhaps just between jobs. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.