3 Reasons to Learn An Instrument As A Way to Further Your Professional Career

As a professional woman, it’s important to always be looking for ways in which you can maintain your competitiveness in the workforce as well as stay on the top of your game in your current industry. After you’ve received your formal education, you may be struggling to find a way to continue expanding your mind and contributing to the effectiveness of your professional position.

While your time may be limited, you may be surprised to learn just how much professional benefit you could receive from learning how to play an instrument as an adult. To show you why this could be a great option for you, here are just three of the reasons learning to play the piano or strum on the guitar could make you better at your job and a greater asset to your corporate team.

Higher Executive Brain Functions

According to Christopher Bergland, a contributor PsychologyToday.com, learning to play an instrument later in life has a great impact on your executive brain functions, an area that could also prove to help you professionally as well. Bergland writes that executive functions include processing and retaining information, problem solving and being adaptable. All three of these benefits will help you in your career as well as other areas in your life. So if you feel that you may not have the professional edge you once did, consider allocating some of your time to learning how to play an instrument.

Improves Creative Thinking

By learning how to play an instrument, Michael Gonchar, a contributor to The New York Times, shares that your creative thinking will also be improved. Traits like collaboration, connecting ideas, and imagining the future—areas many professional workers need to excel at—can all be amplified through actively participating in music. Not only this, but music opens and expands your mind like nothing else can, further contributing to your ability to think creatively about problems and devise creative solutions to benefit your business as a whole as well as your individual career.

Increase Your Productive Longevity

It’s well known that as you age, your brain doesn’t always stay as sharp as it once was when you were younger. However, Diane Cole, a contributor to National Geographic, reports that learning to play an instrument in your later years can actually prolong your brain’s ability to function at a higher level. Things like memory loss, cognitive decline and more don’t happen as rapidly or as profoundly to people who have learned to play musical instruments, regardless of how long ago it was learned. So if you’re worried about remaining a viable employee for as long as possible, you may want to pick up an instrument in your spare time.

There are many professional as well as health benefits that come from learning to play an instrument. If you’d like to see some of these benefits reflected in your own life, consider starting this musical journey today.