5 Online Courses to Boost Your Career Development and Professional Wellness

Feeling stagnant in the growth of your career? It’s normal for your professional growth to sometimes hit a plateau. But learning how to improve and push past these rules sets apart the successful from the complacent. In this article, I’ll share how these five online courses can boost your career development and change your life for the better.

• 5 Courses to Boost Your Career Development
  • Charisma on Command University
  • Extreme Ownership Academy
  • Simon Sinek’s Online Courses and Optimism Library
  • James Clear’s 30 Days to Better Habits
  • The Art of Negotiation by Chriss Voss
• 5 Hubs for Online Career Courses
• Final Thoughts on Career Development

5 Courses to Boost Your Career Development

There are many online courses to choose from, so much so that trying to figure out which to use to improve your professional life can feel overwhelming and daunting. Have no fear, here are five courses by proven experts that will provide drastic results in your personal and career development—if you choose to practice what you learn.

Charisma on Command University

Charisma on Command University is a robust and streamlined course designed to equip you with all the charisma tools and psychological hacks to make you an interpersonal powerhouse. Having a well-polished grasp of charisma techniques is essential to your career development. If you’re not confident in how you present yourself or interact with others, this course may be just what you need to boost your career. Charisma on Command University is a 30-day program that takes only 30 minutes daily.

This charisma course will delve into everything from how to make a great first impression, conversion skills, and confidence to more advanced skills such as storytelling, body language, and leadership. You may recognize the creators of this powerful course from their popular YouTube educational series, Charisma on Command. The Charisma on Command YouTube series is free and is a great resource for personal and professional charisma skills. But if you want to take your skills to the next level for the greatest professional impact, Charisma on Command University is money well spent. If you don’t feel like you got your money’s worth, CCU comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee with no participation restrictions.

Extreme Ownership Academy

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin are Navy Seal special ops commanders and authors of The New York Times #1 best seller, Extreme Ownership. They bring you the next evolution in professional and personal leadership training with Extreme Ownership Academy. With both a free course tier and a la carte or bundled membership options, Extreme Ownership Academy is a leadership boot camp for everyone. Regardless of your position, level of career development, or current leadership status, you can find value in this course. Willink and Babin’s consulting firm, Echelon Front, specializes in consulting for everyone, from individuals to Fortune 500 companies, on the skills required to build effective leaders and formidable teams. Whether you are a CEO or stay-at-home parent, Extreme Ownership Academy is designed to help you succeed and to train you to be the best version of yourself. Participants level up their organization, problem-solving, respect, discipline, and delegation skills.

Simon Sinek’s Online Courses and Optimism Library

Simon Sinek revolutionized the business world with his best-selling books, Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, and The Infinite Game. His motivational speeches and TED talks have inspired millions. He teaches how to change their career perspective from a defeating short-term, win/lose mindset to a long-term (or “infinite”) perspective that encourages healthy competition and leadership. Sinek coined and popularized the professional notion of centering a business around a central vision—or “why.” Sinek explains that having a personal and professional “why” motivates, unites, and guides all decision-making, thus creating a cohesive and passionate team and work environment. Sinek offers a la carte personal and career development courses on finding your “why,” redesigning your work day, building trusting teams, creating accountability cultures, and optimizing communication strategies.

Don’t feel ready to commit to an actual course quite yet? In addition to Sinek’s online courses, he offers a monthly or annual subscription to access the entire library of on-demand video resources and materials used in his courses. This Optimism Library allows you to delve as deeply into the course material on your own timeline.

James Clear’s 30 Days to Better Habits

Do you want to create or improve habits that will change your life and improve your career? Look no further than the free email course 30 Days to Better Habits by James Clear. James Clear is a leading expert in habits and productivity and the best-selling author of The New York Times #1 best seller Atomic Habits. Creating—and, more importantly, maintaining—habits that drive you to success with each moment is essential to your career development. Clear’s 30-day email course gives you bite-sized, actionable steps you can take each day to build and maintain healthy routines. These routines are designed to become habits that will promote incremental improvements that make huge positive changes in your personal and professional lives.

The Art of Negotiation by Chriss Voss

Chris Voss is a legendary former FBI hostage negotiator, Harvard Law School professor, and best-selling author of Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It. He teaches you how to negotiate your way through anything. Nearly every aspect of life is a negotiation, from deciding where to eat lunch with your coworkers to securing a higher-paying position or salary. Learning to negotiate for what you want without being confrontational or offensive will change your life. Chriss Voss and his team at The Black Swan Group offer several ways to use their invaluable instruction.

First, the course The Art of Negotiation is available through Masterclass.com—a paid subscription that offers classes from leading professionals and celebrities in all fields of study. This course takes you step by step through the tactics of negotiation, and at the end of each unit, Voss shows a real-time negotiation using the tactics learned. This course option is great for visual learners who thrive by seeing, listening, and learning through example.

Second, The Black Swan Group offers free YouTube instructional videos on the art and tactics of negotiation by Voss and others on his accomplished team. These free videos are less polished and produced than the Masterclass.com series. However, if you find and watch the videos you need in their robust library of video resources, you will glean a deep and comprehensive education on negotiation.

Third, The Black Swan group offers a free e-book, 5 Negotiation Tactics for Dealing with Difficult People, to jump-start your negotiation skills. You should see immediate results if you follow the principles.

5 Hubs for Online Career Courses

Craving more? Here are 5 online resources that offer free and paid courses to further your career development.

1. Coursera 
2. LinkedIn Learning
3. Udemy 
4. edX 
5. Skillshare

Final Thoughts on Career Development

Whether you are just starting out on your professional journey, are feeling stuck in your job, or are a successful entrepreneur, it is important to challenge yourself continually. As you use courses such as these to improve your professional life, you will see opportunities open to you in ways that you may have previously thought impossible. Remember, never stop learning and improving. You are never too established to improve and take advantage of the opportunities that await you.