The age of knowledge/vocation is continually becoming smaller than the human life span.
Early ages
The Vedic wisdom talked about four ashrams signifying a simple strategy to live a meaningful life. It talked about learning as the foundation of a life that adds value to society & the world at large in different phases of life.
The learning & contribution cycles had milestones at 25 years’ span. The basic premise being that once you learn an art or, a vocation, it is sufficient for the rest of the life.
The age of knowledge or, vocation was higher than human life.
Today
Unfortunately, though the wisdom is still valid but the times have changed. Today the pace of knowledge growth is faster than the earlier times.
The age of vocation/ knowledge is smaller than the human life span.
And the ratio keeps going down. Today, in order to live the contribution & earning part of life, one has to learn many times over. Simplistically, without continual learning, it is difficult to have a meaningful life. Continual self development is the minimum requirement for success.
On top of it, the typical contribution life today is not static. The roles keep changing, the responsibilities keep changing, the knowledge & self development requirements keep changing and that too, faster than ever.
This makes the current human society learning based, where learning is the most important requirement and continual self development is the minimum requirement for success.
The academic learning that we receive in the foundation stage prepares us to start off & lays the ground for future learning. Our success afterwards depends on the initiative of the individual alone.
Continual self development is not a matter of choice today. It is a pre-requisite to growth & success.
It is a good idea to keep checking our focus on this most important part of our life.