A world-class competitors’ view…

…of lessons learned.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve become a huge fan of Josh Waitzkin’s book, The Art of Learning. In particularly reflective mood he wrote “We have to release our current ideas to soak in new material, but not so much that we lose touch with our natural talents.”

What a beautiful way of describing what we need to do to effectively integrate lessons learned.  It’s so easy, when learning something new, to become enamored with the new concepts and fail to ascertain whether or not that new information fits our style or how it will help us achieve our goals.

Certainly most of what we learn can be adapted to fit our style and support our efforts in achieving our goals.  Unfortunately, we don’t often think about how to adapt the lessons learned until we’ve experienced some disappointment.

It’s counter-intuitive, but you can accelerate the successful integration of new knowledge by asking yourself three questions:

1. Will this information help me achieve my goals?
2. Is this information congruous with my style?
3. If not, how can I adapt it to fit my style?

The answers to these simple questions will help you strike the balance Josh Waitzkin so  eloquently described.

The 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE program is designed to help you see more effective ways of doing business – ways that dramatically improve your bottom line while making your life easier.  In today’s blog I used Step 6, Eclectic Education, to gain new perspectives from World Champion Chessmaster and Tai Chi Chuan master, Josh Waitzkin.  I also used Step 4, See Similarities, to demonstrate how to apply these concepts to any life situation you face.  For more information on the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE visit www.furtwengler.com/7steps.htm.

If you’d like to receive a weekly email reminder with a link to The Invaluable Leader blog or if you’d like me to address specific topics, please send me an email at dale@furtwengler.com.  Please share your experience with our readers by posting a comment.

Good news – My latest book, Pricing for Profit, was released 9.9.09 in the United States, Canada, U.K., Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands.  It’s available in all the major bookstores – Borders, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

Thanks to all of you, Pricing for Profit jumped from #83 in the category of pricing books on Amazon to #41 in a week.  May your kindness be repaid a thousand times.