You took the class, now what?

You took the class.

You filled pages with notes. You highlighted the workbook. You nodded enthusiastically. Maybe you even left thinking, “That was fantastic. I am absolutely going to use this.”

And then Monday happened.

The emails arrived. The meetings started. The phone rang. Someone needed something right now. Your beautiful course notes disappeared beneath everything else demanding your attention.

And that great idea you were absolutely going to implement?

Well…you'll get to it.

Eventually.

In this episode of Learn It. Grow With It. Own It., Denise Cicchella tackles the gap between learning something and actually doing something with it.

Because completing a course isn't the finish line.

It's the starting line.

In This Episode

We explore why the hours and days immediately following training matter so much, and why waiting until you “have time” to apply what you've learned is one of the quickest ways to lose the value of the learning experience.

Denise discusses how to turn education into action by identifying something useful before you even leave the classroom, webinar, conference, or training session.

Not ten things.

Not an enormous implementation plan.

One thing.

One technique to try.

One conversation to have.

One process to change.

One question to ask differently.

One idea to put into motion.

Because knowledge sitting quietly in a notebook may be interesting.

Knowledge put to work can change something.

The 24–48 Hour Challenge

After your next learning experience, don't simply close the workbook and move on.

Within the next 24 to 48 hours, choose something you learned and use it.

Try it. Test it. Adapt it. Talk about it. Teach it to somebody else. Put it into your work.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

It just has to leave the page.

Learn It. Grow With It. Own It.

Learn It: Pay attention to what genuinely connects with you during the learning experience.

Grow With It: Ask yourself how that idea could work in your world, with your people, your challenges, and your circumstances.

Own It: Do something with it while the learning is still fresh.

That's when training stops being an event on your calendar and starts becoming part of what you know, how you think, and what you do.

So after your next class, webinar, conference, book, podcast, or brilliant conversation, ask yourself one simple question:

“What am I going to do differently because I learned this?”

Then don't wait for someday.

Action it.

Because you didn't invest your time simply to collect more information.

You invested it to grow.

Learn it. Grow with it. Own it.