One More New Year’s Resolution

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By Rockie Blunt

If you are like most people I know, you recently made some New Year’s resolutions. Chances are that some of your resolutions, such as quitting smoking, dieting or starting up at the gym again, are aimed at developing your physical health.

Obviously that is very important, but how about your mind? Would it also be a good idea to attend to your intellectual health? Maybe doing something simple, like shutting off the TV and picking up a book every once in a while. Or perhaps a more ambitious goal: joining a book club, or taking that college course you have been thinking about for years. Or signing up for one of the many technical, operational and professional skills courses NEPPA offers.

Here are a few ideas for increasing your knowledge at work in 2011:

1. Start writing a journal. About what? You and your job. Reflect on what you do every day. What are your favorite tasks, and why? Are there any parts of your job that you find difficult, or are not going so well? You will discover that a journal yields all kinds of insights, many that might surprise you. And remember: journal writing is relaxed writing; you merely put down anything that comes to mind. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, punctuation or paragraphing; just write.
2. If one of your co-workers is particularly good at something, or knows more about a topic than you do, ask the person to explain that information or teach you how to do that task.
3. Visit another department in your utility and acquaint yourself with what it does. If you know someone in that department, but you have never been exactly sure what they do, ask them.
4. Read an article in a public power trade magazine about a topic you don’t know much about.
5. If your utility publishes a newsletter periodically, brush up on a topic that interests you and write an article on it.

Any one of these ideas can be very rewarding, and if you find that they involve dusting off a few mental "cobwebs," that’s okay too. You’re never too old to learn. As you go through life your capacity to learn actually grows, but you have to make it grow. Mental muscles are like physical ones: they need exercise to keep them in shape.

So happy new learning in the new year!