Leaders who embrace lifelong learning can stay fresh indefinitely and more effective as a result, a recent blog posting asserts.

Steve Farber’s Extreme Leadership blog argues that a commitment to lifelong learning is vital, because “you’ll always be seeing the world through new eyes.”

The concept is an important one to master, he writes, because it keeps an executive’s mind sharp, unspoiled and optimistic about the challenges ahead.

“Lifelong learning, as a pledge you make to yourself, is how you greet each new year with glee and excitement,” the blog posting notes. “It’s how you make your business better than the competition, because you aren’t resting on your laurels.”

It is important, however, to blend new skills learned with older connections and ties. The new can inform the old and vice-versa, he says.

“You know that building older relationships and following tried and true pathways in business are both essential,” he writes. “You also know, and this is more true with each passing year, that you have to ‘stay with the times’ to get business, too…Commit yourself to the new year with fresh eyes, with the willingness to see something new and figure out how to incorporate it into the value you’ve already built over the past year and beyond.”

The full post – “Lifelong Learners Get The Most Out Of The Old And The New” – can be accessed at this link.