Prompt: We are all opsimaths
In the last installment, I spoke about a manager at a previous job. I’ve been lucky to have some really good bosses in my career.
Going back to my first manager though, and one thing I’ll always remember.
An early task I was set was to send him three interesting things I’d seen in our industry (marketing) every week.
It’s a simple task but it’s one I love for a few reasons.
Firstly, ‘interesting’ is totally objective.
Secondly, the number is completely arbitrary. It could be three, it could be five, it could be ten.
Thirdly, I don’t remember now if my manager ever gave me feedback on the things I sent through. Were they interesting enough? Could they be applied to our role?
It didn’t really matter.
What did matter was that each week I was scouring blogs and social media posts, trying to find the thought leaders in our industry. I was learning. And I was finding interesting (to me) things.
It instilled in me, a desire to always be learning and looking for new knowledge.
It’s something I’ve brought into my own management style, because I think it’s important to always be learning and I think it’s important that you instill that in the people who work for you.
So, that’s inspired todays prompt:
Send yourself the most interesting thing you’ve learnt this week. Try and do this every week for as long as you can. Try not to break the habit!
Happy journaling.
Dave Bawden is the founder of This Journaling Journey, where he helps people (especially men) use journaling to rewrite their personal myths, reconnect with meaning, and define success on their own terms. He writes at the intersection of self-authorship, narrative identity, and everyday philosophy.
