What is the cumulative effect of just one hour a day over five years? Did you know that one hour each day equals 260 hours each year and that one hour each day equals 1300 hours over five years?

There is no excuse for you not to become an expert in your field because you can attain the equivalent of a PhD over the course of five years by developing yourself for just one hour each day. Let me put this into perspective, it only takes 2-3 years and 72 semester credit hours to get a PhD at a well known Ivy League school on the east coast. Here are twelve more ways to become an expert in your industry:

Use mornings and evenings to your advantage

Early mornings and late evenings before you go to bed are good times to develop yourself because you usually have uninterrupted periods of time to concentrate on what you need to learn.

Write articles for your industry's professional magazines and journals

Find a topic that would be of interest to people in your field and write an article that displays your ability to analyze challenging issues or to provide solutions to pressing problems. Make sure you are writing about something that your peers care about and that your peers want to know more about.

Develop a learning program

Develop a self-paced learning program that focuses on the things that you need to know more about or that you want to learn. Topics should include the basic fundamentals of your field as well as the cutting edge information that will position you as the expert in what the upcoming trends are for your industry.

Learn something new about your field everyday

Make a concerted effort to learn one valuable piece of information about your field each and everyday. It does not have to be earth shattering but make sure that you add something to your reservoir of knowledge on a daily basis.

Read 4-5 books in your field every month

Every month you should be reading books that will assist you in developing your overall skills in leadership, management, communication, planning, etc. Read books by the pioneers in your field. Don't stop there though, read books in unrelated fields to broaden your knowledge and to seek ideas that can be applied to your industry.

Host a free or paid talk about your topic for any of the following organizations:

Special Interest Groups Schools Civic organizations Networking groups Management associations Social service organizations

Keep a learning journal

A learning journal assists you in keeping track of what you have learned over a period of time. Use the journal to record the knowledge you have gained as well as the knowledge that you want to obtain. Refer back to your learning journal to continuously learn and to receive new insights from previous lessons.

Host a teleconference, seminar, or forum

Hosting an event is a great way to promote your expertise. A key advantage of hosting an event is th

at you can learn as much as you teach. You will be able to increase your expertise by reflecting on the questions asked by your audience and the different perspectives offered about your topic.

Become a coach to people in your industry

The best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. Become a coach to people who want to improve their current performance in your industry. Mentor people who express a desire to learn more about what you do.

Become an author - write a book for the people in your industry

Nothing says that you are an expert more than a published book. You become the acknowledged expert when you have a book in print. Get started writing your book today. Your book becomes your platform that you can parlay into seminars, audio CD's and tapes, calendars - the sky is the limit.

Clip newspaper and magazine articles for you to read later

Don't throw those newspapers and magazines away until you cut out the articles that are pertinent to your personal development. If you do not have enough time to read the article, file it and read it during one of your early morning or evening development sessions.

Make your vehicle a university on wheels

Most Americans spend at least 30 - 60 minutes in their cars everyday commuting to work. Why not turn this commuting time into personal development time by listening to teaching tapes. You can learn just about anything you want to because someone, somewhere has put it on tapes or CD's. You can create your own CD's and tapes using readily available technology. If you are more of a visual person get a video and watch it. This way you can get stimulated by using both your visual and auditory senses.

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