Personal admission >> I find it challenging to carve out enough time to read everything that I want to stay current. Despite my best intentions to read for an hour a day, I find it pretty hard to do that.
Its well documented that most successful people spend a good proportion of their time reading and learning. I’m determined to learn more - its just there are many distractions. Anyone else relate to that?
One of the hacks I’m very fortunate to have is that because of what I do, I get to listen to and spend time listening to and talking with some inspiring thought leaders.
Take last week. I was in Latvia for 2 days speaking. I shared the stage with James Wallman and Max Borders. Both were talking about the future and shared some insights and trends.
James has written a book Stuffocation and was talking about this and the Experience Economy. His premise is that we’re all stuffocated. We have more stuff than we could ever need - clothes we don't wear, kit we don't use, toys we don't play with. But having everything isn't making us happier. It's bad for the planet. and it's cluttering up our homes. I couldn’t agree more. When we sailed for two years, my favourite Christmas was the one where we only had one present each. The gift was more appreciated and we did what was truly important. We spent more time talking together and enjoying family time rather than being overwhelmed by gifts.
James shared some interesting things I hadn’t heard of before - Escape Rooms, Secret Cinemas and talked about the rise of festivals and real life experiences.
Max was equally fascinating and I got to spend the evening with him talking about the future - many hours learning about and debating cryptocurrencies and what's coming next for the world.
So, here’s my point. In our world where we have so many competing demands on our time and where social media will effortlessly suck hours out of your day without you even noticing, how can you increase your learning? My advice is continually seek out and find smart people at the leading edge of what they are doing. The experience economy rather than the digital economy. Conversations in real world are so much more engaging than digital ones.
My reason for being in Latvia was to deliver my Teamwork Keynote on Day 1 and my Leadership Masterclass on Day 2. The audiences were amazing and we had great energy and engagement in both sessions.
If your team needs fresh ideas and inspiration heading into 2018, I’d love to share ideas with you.
Have an awesome day
Caspar
““To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together” just one of many golden nuggets of inspiration from Caspar. His fascinating talk cleverly aligns his brave if not crazy(!) yacht sail around the world with his young family with the rollercoaster of life in the business world. Many, if not all, of Caspar’s learnings are also highly applicable to life in general. A talk not to be missed if you want your listeners to genuinely walk away inspired to not only reflect but to act upon it.”