The Relevance
I am not one to berate our sons when a particular subject becomes too challenging. After all, I was far more interested in girls and sports while in High School, so I can definitely empathize. Math and chemistry lacked relevance for me. And this made getting good grades in these subjects all the more difficult.
While I don’t pretend to have the answers to our current education system, it seems to me that later in life, many people get a lot more motivated to learn. How many people do we know in the ranks of Corporate America who have gone on to pursue a Bachelors, Masters or PhD? The same is true for most of us who work as professional coaches. Education and reading is paramount to our success. The relevance to all of us who stay in learning mode is that getting better educated will translate to more opportunities, more income and a better lifestyle. Now that’s relevance.
I can’t remember where I read this, but the saying went something like this, “Leaders are readers. And readers are leaders.” While I couldn’t stand to “do homework” through High School and College, as an adult in the workforce since 1983, I’ve learned to love reading. My bookshelves are full of books on leadership, management, sales, marketing, and other topics that relate specifically to personal development. Ray Kroc once said, “When you’re green you grow. When you’re ripe you rot.” And in today’s world of the “knowledge worker” it’s absolutely critical to read, take classes, go to seminars, and continue climbing the proverbial “learning curve” whether it’s for an advance degree or not.
I strongly encourage everyone to read something of relevance every day. One of my personal strategies has been to eliminate watching stupid television shows. In fact, I hardly watch anything on television that’s not of educational value. (How did with live without digital recorders? Commercials are the bane of television for me) And when I walk our beloved Labrador Retriever, I listen to CDs that help me learn. When I’m driving in my car I almost always listen to something that helps me learn and grow personally.
So what lifestyle changes have you made or could you make in this regard? Please share your comments with a post on our blog. Some of my coming posts will discuss the many books I read. And everyone here at BusinessCoach.com appreciates your participation here. What are you reading? What are you learning? How is it helping you grow?
As always, warm regards.
Coach Cliff
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