My daughter, Ella, recently started her first day of kindergarten. She is our oldest child, so it was a big event at our household. Throughout the summer, Ella was very apprehensive about going to school. She would sometimes cry just from thinking about going to school. Since she felt this apprehension, we tried to do things that would help her feel comfortable with her new environment before her first day there. We often talked about how much fun it would be for her at her new school. We had a picnic on her future playground. On orientation day, we spent a lot of time in her classroom and walked throughout the entire school.
Then, on the morning of Ella’s first day, she bravely got on the bus and went off to school. When she got off the bus that afternoon, she said that she had a fun time and was looking forward to going again the next day. Her mother and I were as relieved as she was (maybe more so).
Our children aren’t the only ones that should be going “back to school.” In Stephen R. Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People®, he reveals the 7th Habit as, “Sharpen the Saw.” It’s a great explanation of how effective people continually learn and improve themselves.
This doesn’t have to be formal education. It can be as simple as reading a book, listening to an audio book or podcast in your truck, or chatting with a peer about how they run their business. From any of these activities you can identify a few big ideas that will move your business or career forward. Then, it’s about acting on that information by implementing what you’ve learned until it becomes a habit within your company or daily life.
“…they learned how to do what they do in the first two years of their career, and then stopped learning. Instead of 20 years of experience, they have two years of experience repeated 10 times.”
When you do this, you’ll be miles ahead of others in your industry because most people stop learning after they think they know how to do their job. I often chuckle when someone says they’ve been doing whatever it is they do for 10, 20, or 30 years. In most cases, they learned how to do what they do in the first two years of their career, and then stopped learning. Instead of 20 years of experience, they have two years of experience repeated 10 times.
I recently went “back to school.” I studied for, and took the exam to become a Certified Concrete Technician. This is a designation given by the Concrete Foundations Association (CFA). The test involves material from the International Residential Code (IRC), American Concrete Institute (ACI), OSHA, CFA Standards, and other publications.
I’m happy to say that I passed the grueling exam on the first try. I join my Dad, Barry, as the only Certified Concrete Technicians in the Southeast. Barry had better test scores than me, although I believe he had an advantage: he co-wrote the ACI standards that were then adopted by the IRC.
In what ways over the last few years have you “sharpened the saw” and learned something new? Is there a way that your business or daily life could be improved by learning a new habit, system, or approach?
To Your Success,
