Working my butt off to be better at what I do

I realized yesterday that although I am pretty good at my job there is room for improvement because I can be better at what I do. I work at a good company, with good people and a good manager but the thing is that if I want promotions/more money/etc it is me (not the company, not my team, not my manager) who needs to make it happen. So, for the next year or so, I am going to do just that. We don't have very good training in place so what I can do is use the resources at hand to create my own training module.

I think too often our generation believes that their locus of control is external. I could blame my situation (of not knowing the advance techniques in my job) on a number of things: My education, my company, my boss, heck I can even blame the weather but when it comes down to it I can change my own condition. Its the American Dream for goodness sake. It's Picking Yourself up with your Own Bootstraps. Call it what you like, but we need to get off our behinds and take our situation, our growth, and our money into our own hands.