If you can learn, you can do everything. A new skill always gives you more than you thought it would.

When I was 18 years old (which is a long time ago 😀), I read an article about the iron man in the newspaper. I don’t know why it made an impression on me and I got it into my head to do one.

I always thought I would do it when I was between jobs. But the years passed and the opportunity didn’t come.

Until one day, I met a colleague who was doing it regularly while working. That was the trigger.

Think about the projects you have accomplished. Try to remember where your first inspiration came from. You will always find someone or something that ignites the passion in you.

For my 40th, I gave myself this birthday present.

The problem was that I didn’t know how to swim freestyle for a long distance. After 50 meters in the pool, I was already showing the first signs of fatigue.

So, as usual, I started looking at books. My best companions. And I discovered a method, Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier by Terry Laughlin. I highly recommend it.

This book has transformed the way I swim. The iron man event is a 3,8 km swim. While I am a relatively good runner, the swimming event was the one I enjoyed the most.

But the skill I learned to do this Iron Man gave me much more than that.

Swimming is like walking, running. It puts you in contact with a crucial element of nature – water.

Every time I have the opportunity to swim in a lake, a river, or the ocean, I can take advantage of this newly acquired skill and feel comfortable in contact with water.

A new skill brings you directly and indirectly always more than you think.

Learning is the key to energy.

What will you learn next?

Dror

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Books to go further.
Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career by Scott Young

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson 

Polymath: Master Multiple Disciplines, Learn New Skills, Think Flexibly, and Become an Extraordinary Autodidact by Peter Hollins