Woke up at 2:45 am this morning after sleeping 4.5 hours. Had to do a few pushups to get the blood flowing but after those first ~15 min, I've been alert.
Finished up the current chapter of The Leadership Dojo. Was a very insightful and thought-provoking section. Talked about the origin of the word Dojo itself. It's not a physical space that we go to — it can be anywhere we want it to be (bedroom, garage, park, school, office, bus, etc.) — it's an internal place that lives in our hearts. A place to self-cultivate and learn through action. The chapter dissects that our current standard of learning and classrooms are only one part of learning. We've equated rational knowledge acquisition and regurgitation as 'learning.' But really, learning is an action. That unity of mind, body, spirit. Right now, learning has placed an emphasis on the mind, without much regard to the body and spirit. Without cultivating ALL those 3 aspects of being human, we are setting ourselves up for generational failure. The Asaro tribe in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea have a proverb for this that resonated with me: "Knowledge is only a rumor until is in the muscle." Very deep. We're expecting to grow leaders when all we do is talk about the qualities of being a leader. Where is the practice? If you're not leading your own life, how can you expect to lead others?
What then is a classroom? For my school project, should I even be calling it a classroom? It implies a certain meaning and picture in our head. What if I call it a Dojo? It's a place not only to learn, but to learn how to learn. To put into practice - to build into the muscle - what it is you're learning. To learn about the full self. To learn about the self in ways that cannot be quantitatively measured - like inspiration, motivation, values, culture building, managing, emotions, etc. Everything like this that we cannot put a number on, our rationally trained minds have collectively put less of a value on and thereby disregarded it as something not valuable. Then we turn around and ask "Where are our leaders? Where are the morals, ethics, values, purpose of our leaders?" You fools lol. You've been thwarting and suppressing that which you've been seeking! It's been there the whole time. Building an environment where children can practice the art of leadership throughout their life so that you don't have to take a theoretical class on the topic to learn the principles of being an effective leader. It's already being cultivated in them every day.
People ask if you're "born a leader" or "learn to become a leader." What about both? Why not both? We are all already born leaders as human beings. Our culture, environment, upbringing, society has taught us that we're not leaders and that we need to 'become a leader.' Clearly! Because by taking away the body and spirit from that necessary trifecta, we've become accustomed to not growing those leadership traits. The modification I'd make to the 2nd statement is that we can learn to become more effective and exemplary leaders. Additionally, to lead is to learn. Leadership is not a destination where you've "arrived," even if you become a manager, director, VP or CEO. It's a constant practice of becoming a better leader. So it's really both - we're born leaders AND we become more effective & exemplary leaders.
I've come to terms with the fact that I won't read every book on my book list. Probably not even close. But I'd rather read 10 pages a day (like I did this morning with Leadership Dojo) and go super deep and ingrain it in my mind and body than reading all the books I 'want to' just to say that I have and then at the end ask the question, "What did I really learn?"
Yesterday, did nothing aside from the usual: 1% wins with compounding interest.
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