Bonjour. In this video, I want to share an important daily routine.
I’m at home and it’s early in the morning. I have a morning routine which involves “reading to learn” and I am currently reading a book called ‘Never Eat Alone’ by Keith Ferrazzi that was recommended to me.
Many people make a big distinction between their learning years and their working years. When you are young you go to school and possibly go on to University. These are your learning years. Then it’s time to get a job and start working. These are your working years.
I work with busy leaders and their teams, people who are working really hard and have very little time at the end of their day to put energy into their self- development and learning.
Top performers have this thirst for learning. They read books, they attend seminars, they constantly think about how they can improve and grow. However, this is not an easy feat when you are super busy.
My suggestion would be this: make it a routine.
For me it is every morning for 30 minutes. After my morning walk, stretch and meditation, I sit down with a book or watch an online course. I am just a student listening to or reading from a great teacher. Now you might ask what book should I read, what lessons should I follow?
Thank you for asking J
There is a simple saying: when the student is ready the teacher comes. I have notes in my iPhone called learning. Whenever I hear about an interesting book or course, I write it down. Then I do a bit of research when I’m back at my desk and if it looks interesting, I order the book or enroll in an online course.
Pay attention and you will see many sources of learning.
So, let me ask you this: what are your learning habits? What is your learning routine?
A word of caution / truth. Before sending this blog, I asked my beautiful wife Toni Kim to read it. She kindly reminded me how hard it was (she said impossible) when our kids where younger for her and I to block ‘30mn to read’ in the morning. There was so much to do: preparing the packed lunches, getting kids ready for school, driving them, …
Touché…
However, there might be other ways to build this routine. A simple example: for years I commuted to work by bus. I would see many people in the bus either doing nothing or flicking through their phones to check their social media. Nothing wrong with social media (well, may be a little bit but that’s for another discussion), but allocating a small amount of time daily to read is often possible.
Performance is not about one big thing you do once in a while. Performance is about small things done regularly. Start by committing to reading 10 pages a day. Easy. But in less than a month you have read a book, and in a year 12 books. Just 10 pages per day.
This is this week’s Work Smarter: Live Better tip.
Happy learning,
Cyril
