Let’s play word association. I say ‘career development’ and chances are you’ll be thinking ‘promotion’. That’s ok, you’re not alone. But development means a lot more than that and, in many companies, the opportunities for promotion are limited, while the chances to develop are many.

Development is about so much more than promotion. Learning new skills or different ways to tackle existing problems is actually a routine part of modern working life. In a world changing as quickly as ours, the idea of ‘running quickly to stand still’ is very appropriate. There are so many new skills to learn. New IT platforms, social media, HR and safety rules too. It’s easy to see these things as a threat, but the reality is that we should enjoy the time spent learning new skills that help us enjoy our work and be ready for the changes ahead, without getting hung up about promotion.

In other aspects of our lives we don’t directly associate development with opportunity. If I work hard at being a better dad or husband, it’s not because I’m hoping that in three years’ time I’ll be promoted to a better family or qualify for a Company Dog. I just want to be a better person.

Development doesn’t have to mean training courses or weekends away in a retreat. It happens all around us every day. Most of the things we learn that matter happen a long way from regimented learning. The problem with a training course is that you spend two days learning lots of things intensely and then go back to your life and don’t use any of them for weeks, by which time you’ve forgotten it.

People learn best from people they know and respect. And most of us learn better in small chunks when we are using it most. Development is most beneficial when it happens all of the time. Small steps with many equally small failures.

And occasionally a few proper lightbulb moments too. Think of those occasions when you’ve heard a guest on a radio show who’s talked about something you’re interested in, but in a new way or from a different perspective that’s altered your thinking. That’s development. Or an inspirational magazine or blog article or finding a new app that allows you to manage your life more easily.

These things represent tiny changes but add them together over many months and years and they move us from who we were to who we are now. And that’s an interesting conversation in itself. I know a lot of people in their 40s and 50s who aren’t comfortable with the idea of getting older. “If only it could be like it was when I was younger,” etc. Or “Why can’t I be that spontaneous, carefree person I used to be anymore?”

Which is crazy. Why focus on the perceived negatives of getting older when we should be celebrating the hundreds of positive changes as we developed into smarter, better human beings. Be honest, which of us aged 21, would have hoped that we’d get to 40 and be no smarter, no more mature, no more experienced in life or able to make important decisions and no flipping different to how we were then?

We grumble about age when we should be celebrating what we’ve become. And if getting older really bothers you, then try going to a nightclub full of teenagers and see how long you last before running out in horror. Trust me, the realities of youth are a long way from your rose-tinted nostalgia.

Someone I know has a thing called their ‘reverse bucket list’, which instead of being a load of things that they want to do (but probably won’t) before they die, is actually a list of all the great things they have done and achieved. It’s a very long list. Surprisingly so is mine and I’m guessing yours will be too.

So the idea of development is one that should excite and inspire us, but like so many things we should be looking for and celebrating the teeny, marginal gains which lead organically to the bigger changes instead of beating ourselves up because our grand gesture to ‘lose a stone by July’ didn’t work out…again.

And, who needs a Company Dog anyway?