How’s your brain doing? Are you able to focus and concentrate for sustained periods of time? Or do you quickly lose your focus? Are you able to be present with yourself and others? What are you learning habits? Do you read books or other meaningful material? Do you listen to podcasts? Attend conferences? Could you name a concrete set of ideas or subjects you want to learn more about? If not, that that should tell you something.

Leaders are learners. No mantra has stuck with me more through the years. We either have what I call an “upgrade mentality” or we will be left behind in an exponentially changing world. We must think of ourselves like software that requires constant upgrades. How do we do that?

Here is my simple approach:

• Develop a learning plan of the subjects you want to learn in the next year.
• Identify the resources you need to deeply understand them – courses, TED talks, podcasts, conferences, etc.
• Create a list of subject experts. I find that a hierarchy of thinkers helps me identify schools of thought.
• Buy or borrow the books and digital resources you need. For depth of understanding, I find it helps to listen to podcasts about a subject, often on 1.5x speed, before I dive into books.
• Take notes. This sounds obvious but the act of typing or handwriting notes helps you remember key concepts.
• Meditate. Yes, meditate.

We also need a map to get where we are going. I developed mine thanks to the entrepreneur and author John Anderson. At a seminar, John led us through his Legacy Map exercise whereby we picked a vision for our life and a year far into the future. Then we created a detailed plan – each quarter, each year, every three years, and so forth – of how we were going to reach it.

It was a difficult exercise but one I am grateful for all these years later. It catalyzed much of the progress I have made in my life. To this day, most mornings, I look at my Boundless Life Map and make sure I am track how I’m doing in the following categories: learning (see above), spiritual habits, energy and fitness (very important), relationships, work habits, money, and fun.

Yes, I really track my fun. Because then I remember to have it. What gets measured, gets done.

Onward and upward.