Training and Development's Role in Your Personal Life

Learning is a continuous process. Our parents, elders and educators have constantly drilled us on that aspect - to keep learning. Learning comes in many forms. You can learn thru schooling, by researching, by coaching and being a mentee, by reading, hearing and observation, by traveling and by attending workshops and trainings geared for development.

Many may think that training and development is merely for those in the workforce, academe, students and the military. It is actually for everyone who aims to develop their professional and/or personal life.

The role of training and development can be classified into 2 aspects:

1. Professional

Professional training and development entail teachings about how one can incorporate the soft skills (eg., leadership, diplomacy, communication, problem solving and decision making skills, emotional quotient in the workplace) and other skills set learned in the workplace.  Professional training and development works for both the employees and employer as they all benefit from what result of the training and development. This is crucial for both as what skills and theories learned by the staff will be transferred and applied to the day-to-day functions required in the workplace.

2. Personal

Even if you have taken a training for professional purposes, most of these trainings and workshops are actually applicable to your personal life. For example, I have gone through series of trainings from our company's leadership programme for a year. I know what I have learned is mainly beneficial to being applied in my work area but the plus factor is that, I have tapped my inner leadership abilities and honed my soft skills like communicating with influence, applying the theories I have learned in problem solving and decision making even in personal matters.  I have also been able to practice the art of diplomacy by being more patient and understanding when to shift my role from being a "child" to a "nurturing parent" to an "adult" thru all the things I have learned in all the training and development workshops I have attended in the past.

So, the role of training and development in both our professional and personal life cannot be denied. In fact, it is really a boon to nominate ourselves to these kinds of trainings so we can evaluate ourselves more and see where we can enhance further. And you will see how doing this can be both beneficial to your career and personal life.

Being Practical At Home Improvements

I have a very tight quarter in the house. Since we are not permanent residents of Dubai, my husband and I are quite adamant to spend on furniture and other fixtures at home. Our pragmatic approach to home and interior decoration is to buy only the essential and affordable. Oftentimes, this kind of principle overlooks aesthetic results. We just end up what ever is practical to put at home.

There are times when my husband and I would not agree on something like buying new metal cabinets to install in the balcony area. The cabinets will be used a portable storage of our trinkets and tools which we use occasionally but is mandatory to have at home. Instead of buying cabinets, we end up buying storage boxes which we can stack.

The sofa is another issue we have to tackle. I planned to purchase an L-shaped modular sitting furniture to update our living room last year. My husband was against the idea because it was not sensible since we still have a sofa. Few months later, we ended up buying a sofa-bed to accommodate visitors who want to spend the night. The beautification aspect of my desire to buy is always outweighed by the practicality of having to actually buy and replace something that is still useful at home.

Home improvement is something we have to sacrifice here in the Middle East because we are transient borders in this country. My husband is right in believing and enforcing his principle of spending our hard-earned money to our dream house than spending unnecessarily here where we will just end up selling them. To that, I definitely agree!

Birthday Favor

My daughter just turned 12 today! She is so excited because she is handing out party favors to her classmates. Jokingly, I asked her, since when does a birthday celebrant give gifts? Isn't she supposed to get gifts and not give them? Well, I was just pulling her legs.

I love to give gifts so off I went to Ikea 2 weeks ago and bought those cute and small spice canister in pack of 4's. A set costs AED 9.00 so that is about US$ 2.50. Not bad I thought. She has 37 classmates and 5 extra teachers so I bought 11 and I got to keep 2 for my scrap trinkets!

Then last week, I took her to the supermarket so she could choose the yummy treats to put inside. We bought chocolates, heart candies (since her birthday falls a day after Valentine's), toffees, and Chupa Chups mini-lollipops in various flavors. We really had fun going around the sweets aisle and wished we could grab more.

I made small tags for her birthday favor with a handmade ice cream cone as embellishment. So cute! So yummy too!

I just dropped her to school a while ago and I can't wait to hear her story about the favors and if her classmates liked them. It is a functional birthday favor, I must say. Not only that you get some treats, you get to keep the container and put your what-have-you there. Also, the small tag can be used as a bookmark. Now, that's super functional! :)

Here are pictures of the favor and tags. Hope you liked them too. So next time you have kids who wants to give out party favors and you are pressed for time and on a tight budget, just take note of this. It won't burn a hole on your pocket.