RWL213:Is it possible develop a career while working remotely?

Now , I have chosen to create these bite-sized episodes because I just want to share , I guess , my own experience . When I talk about my own experience , I mean things that I've personally , uh , experienced myself , or things that , um , I have learned that my , my colleagues and my , my friends who work remotely have experienced themselves .

Uh , and I think this experience , this learning , can if I I feel as though , if I pass it on , I can hopefully help you with your journey , along your journey to improve and to learn and develop whilst working remotely .

I'm passionate , I'm an advocate of remote work because it's had a transformative impact on my life , especially since I became a father , especially since I've had my , had my kids , and my family has grown .

It's something that's I've leaned on in in terms of , um , helping to develop my career and helping to stay also so close to my family while I do that , but of course , you know it hasn't always been , hasn't always been a good experience for me in the early days , when I first started working on a remote basis .

I would just look at work as work and just leave it at that , and I wouldn't necessarily focus on things like embracing my personal development as a way of improving my remote career and well-being .

In fact , my , my whole , I guess my whole goal was to just get work done and do things day by day , but I found that , um , as I did , that I became more isolated and I became um more and more unhappy in many ways .

So , um , here I want to share some , some tips with you , not only tips that um I've used myself , but there are some tips that I've not used myself and have been passed to me by um friends , by colleagues who work on a remote basis . So tip number one is you need to really focus on continuous learning .

So dedicate time to continuous learning and skill development to stay relevant and competitive in your field . This can be achieved through online courses , webinars or reading industry related content .

I will add to that that can also be achieved through following and listening to to podcasts or listening to your favorite um your favorite professionals , reading their blogs , understanding how they work . So it does require you to have a certain amount of um , curiosity to to want to learn and to want to understand and what to want to develop .

So you want to understand and to want to develop . So you need to have that desire in the first place . So continuous learning is number one . Number two you need to think about also goal setting .

So setting clear professional and , in many cases , smart goals and personal goals to stay motivated and to stay focused , to keep on track with what you're doing and to have something to work toward . This can help you measure your progress and you can then celebrate your achievements , whether that be yourself .

You can celebrate yourself , celebrate with your family , celebrate with your peers , your teammates , et cetera . So it's really important to have goals , to be a goal-focused person , and if you're not goal-focused , then develop that habit of setting goals .

So mentorship is another way in which you can embrace personal development as a way to improve your remote career and well-being . So mentorship , so seek out mentorship opportunities where you can learn from experienced professionals and gain valuable insights into your industry . I didn't necessarily have didn't seek out mentorship .

What I did was , as I explained earlier , I would listen , understand , interview professionals who know more about remote work than I did at the time , and that's how I learned . But then those connections , those informational calls , became more regular interactions and they became in some cases friendships in which I would have more regular contact with those people .

So again , I was able to learn from them and understand them a whole lot better as I grew closer and closer . So number four on my list , which is again one which I talk about often , is focusing on wellness , so incorporating wellness into your routine . I often say this one , I often use this as part of my tips because it should be central .

Your health , your wellness , is central to everything . If you're not well , if you're not healthy , then it makes things a lot more difficult . So you need to , where possible , try where you can to affect your own wellness through things such as exercise or engaging in hobbies that bring you joy and bring you relaxation . So that's number four on the list .

Number five on the list , um , is related to number three . So number five is social connection and if you remember number three , I was talking about mentorship .

When I talk about social connection , though , for number five , um , that's going to require you to proactively stay connected with friends , stay connected with family , with colleagues to combat the feelings of isolation , and this can be done on a virtual basis , so virtual socializing on via video calls or in-person meetups .

And , in my case , early on , as I was mentioning you , mentioning to you before about mentorship , for me personally that stemmed from my social connections and interactions with some of the people who I admired in the world of remote work and how they developed themselves and how they developed their teams .

So , yeah , as much as remote workers , people who work from home , are often ridiculed in the press for lack of connection and lack of human interaction . It couldn't be further from the truth and , in fact , if you are working remotely , it's something that you probably need to do , more so than people who who work in a traditional way .

So social connection is number five on my list . And finally , I just say , by embracing personal development as a way to improve your remote career and well-being , remote workers can experience increased motivation . You certainly can . Your well-being . It can affect your well-being and enhance your overall productivity .

I I firmly believe that , because that's something that I have experienced myself , so it's you really need to invest in that , invest in your personal development . When I say invest , it doesn't necessarily have to be a financial investment .

It could be an investment of time , and an investment of time to make those connections that you need to make in order to develop yourself and continue on a path of learning . Well , I hope that has been a useful segment for you today . If it has , please consider sharing this episode with your friends , with your colleagues , who may need to hear it .

Please also , by all means , leave a review of the podcast and leave a rating . That would help me to disseminate this um further across the internet , in the hopes that it could help and reach people who who need it more . Um . So thank you for for doing that and , by all means , do reach out to me .

My I've left my linkedin details in the show notes , as as usual . Please also reach out to me , say hello and if you have any feedback or suggestions . I am more than welcome feedback and suggestions for new episodes and new guests , but until next time , I wish you all the best .