A Bad Habit
Are you leading for the next deliverable, or for long-term impact?
There is a surprising connection between adult learning, procrastination, and transformational leadership.
But let me back up a minute before we go there…
I have a bad habit.
Most of my life I’ve nurtured it, fed off it, bragged about it, and even (falsely) celebrated it as a strength.
It’s the tendency to be a just-in-time processor.
More popularly known as…a procrastinator.
This article is a case in point. The vast majority of our Monday Morning Stretches are written in real time – on Monday morning.
Stuff still gets done. (Almost) always on time. And I like to think the work has been good.
But those facts miss the point of today’s message.
This habit likely traces back to how I approached school. I was a test-crammer.
Busy with sports, activities, and life, I didn’t make time for systematic study.
My short-term memory was just good enough to survive.
I lived in the moment and gave little thought to the future.
I assumed learning would just...happen.
But last week I was reminded of two concepts that challenge this mindset.
First: Training is an event. Learning is an outcome.
Cramming is all about the event – the test, the project, the deliverable.
The goal isn’t to retain or grow, just to get it done and move on.
But if I value learning, that changes everything.
Learning is what stays with us and shapes who we are becoming.
And to get there, we need to respect the learning process.
Second: The ‘spacing’ effect.
This principle from adult learning shows that knowledge sticks better when it is revisited over time rather than crammed all at once.
Instead of studying something once for an hour, our long-term memory retains more when we process information over time.
Study it for 20 minutes on Monday. Revisit it on Wednesday. Review again the next week.
This method leads to greater retention and deeper understanding.
And I believe that’s what we want as value-based leaders.
Not just positive events. We want lasting growth – for ourselves and for the people we serve.
Training has its place. We need reports, deadlines, and deliverables.
But if we want true learning to take root, we have to embrace spacing – consistent input, over time, in digestible form.
This is why regular developmental conversations matter.
This is why monthly coaching and peer groups are so powerful.
Consider this: Are you leading for the next deliverable – or for long-term impact?
How are you building in the power of ‘spacing’ in your business, your life, or your faith journey?
Something to think about, anyway.
Blessings to you, my friends!
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This Week’s Resource Recommendation:
“The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance”
- Josh Waitzkin
From Amazon: Josh Waitzkin knows what it means to be at the top of his game. A public figure since winning his first National Chess Championship at the age of nine, Waitzkin was catapulted into a media whirlwind as a teenager when his father’s book Searching for Bobby Fischer was made into a major motion picture. After dominating the scholastic chess world for ten years, Waitzkin expanded his horizons, taking on the martial art Tai Chi Chuan and ultimately earning the title of World Champion. How was he able to reach the pinnacle of two disciplines that on the surface seem so different? “I’ve come to realize that what I am best at is not Tai Chi, and it is not chess,” he says. “What I am best at is the art of learning.”
With a narrative that combines heart-stopping martial arts wars and tense chess face-offs with life lessons that speak to all of us, The Art of Learning takes readers through Waitzkin’s unique journey to excellence. He explains in clear detail how a well-thought-out, principled approach to learning is what separates success from failure. Waitzkin believes that achievement, even at the championship level, is a function of a lifestyle that fuels a creative, resilient growth process. Rather than focusing on climactic wins, Waitzkin reveals the inner workings of his everyday method, from systematically triggering intuitive breakthroughs, to honing techniques into states of remarkable potency, to mastering the art of performance psychology.
Through his own example, Waitzkin explains how to embrace defeat and make mistakes work for you. Does your opponent make you angry? Waitzkin describes how to channel emotions into creative fuel. As he explains it, obstacles are not obstacles but challenges to overcome, to spur the growth process by turning weaknesses into strengths. He illustrates the exact routines that he has used in all of his competitions, whether mental or physical, so that you too can achieve your peak performance zone in any competitive or professional circumstance.
In stories ranging from his early years taking on chess hustlers as a seven year old in New York City’s Washington Square Park, to dealing with the pressures of having a film made about his life, to International Chess Championships in India, Hungary, and Brazil, to gripping battles against powerhouse fighters in Taiwan in the Push Hands World Championships, The Art of Learning encapsulates an extraordinary competitor’s life lessons in a page-turning narrative.
MMS 25-23
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Blessings to you, my friend!
