I was chatting with someone recently that's younger than me. They've got a good job and had some success learning, but they felt like their career wasn't progressing fast enough. This person still wanted to grow their career and their income. That's the place many people find themselves.

This individual was asking my advice since they thought I'd had some success and were looking for me to share some of the things that worked for me. I asked them this question: What have you done lately outside of work for your career?

They hadn't done really anything, which is fine. This person has a partner, hobbies, and has found some balance in life. They were enjoying themselves, which is great. I love people having balance in life.

However.

If you want to move faster in your career than others, you have to do more. I don't mean work 90 hours a week or spend every night on a project. However, I grew my career with work outside of work. Brent Ozar did the same thing. Many of the speakers you see at conferences and Microsoft MVPs did the same thing. They put in extra hours to grow their skills and knowledge.

I know lots of you work a lot, and you have family/friend/spiritual commitments. I get that. However, I'm sure most of you aren't working the coal miner's schedule. If you have hobbies or fun time, that's great, but can you carve out some time from those to invest in your career? Brent has time management skills advice, and I've written about this as well. Doctors, lawyers, even auto mechanics work on their skills when they aren't getting paid by someone. They do this as an investment in the future.

As I move towards the end of my career, I do less (especially this year), but I still read some books that help grow my skills in areas Redgate cares about. I do some training for coaching to improve there. I do less for my career than I used to, but I still do something outside of work.

Answer my question today. What have you done lately outside of work for your career?