My 2020 Personal Growth Hacks
Hacking personal growth was one of my goals for 2020. I wanted to be better, and excel in my ventures by enriching myself in different eras. This was a nice thing to ponder about… then came COVID-19.
The COVID-19 disrupted many of our lives and created growth opportunities, and we can never let a good disruptive force go to waste, now can we? here is my 2020 journey for being a better version of myself.
1- Read
Reading is a hobby of mine since I was a kid. I feel reading opens a chance to live another life. It opens the possibility to gain wisdom we have yet to acquire from our own experiences. Reading is indeed a growth hack, as you get better by doing it. Here are the books (and articles) I read this year, with a summary:
1- “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Victor Frankel — I read this book once a year, on my birthday. This masterpiece reminds me of our human essence — finding meaning in our lives. In the book, there is a meaningful definition that all can relate to.
2- “Inspired” by Marty Cagan — A must-read for all product people out there. Cagan is one of the world's leaders in product work, and his book is an inspiration on how to get things done in the right way. My biggest take away from this book: half of the product ideas are bad, and the other half needs a lot of iterations until you get it right.
3- “The five dysfunctional of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni — A book about creating a winning management team. All need to be focused on the same goal, accepting that the goal is a joint one. No one can put his own ego in front of the team and companies needs.
4- “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek — My favorite for this year. From my perspective this book says the same thing as Franke’s — a company needs a clear statement of why to get to great achievements. Don't we all?
5- “Blue ocean strategy” by Harvard business school — is a must-read for all of you PM’s out there, navigating your product towards that blue ocean. Innovative thinking is the key, and this book has a methodology on how to do it.
6- ” Couples what work” by Jennifer Petriglieri — A wonderful book about the three main crises couples with dual-career aspirations encounter on their joint journey — the first child, midlife crisis, and retirement. The book captivates different couples at different times, explaining that the root of a good partnership is respect — letting your partner flourish.
7- “On Writing” by Stephen King — As an aspiring writer (to the drawer mostly, it is a hobby rather than a profession ) I was eager to find the secrets of a well-established one. King reveals his own story and some truths about writing. I took his advice to write 1000 words a day and followed it this year.
8- “Smart leaders smarter teams” by Roger Schwarts- How to be a humble leader, understanding that you are not the “one leader” but the incubator to bring out the strengths of your people. I find this idea to be a good fit for product leaders, as our goal is to bring the right questions to our product team and empower the team to create the right products.
9-” Cracking the PM Interview” — I believe in preparing, and I read this book as part of getting ready to become a PM in a leading product company (hello Dynamic Yield).
10-” Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda — is advocated by Steve Jobs. The book is an inspiration for the importance of meditation and yoga practice.
11-” Designing Data-Intensive Applications” by Martin Kleppmann — Is just the bible for creating scalability, consistency, reliability, efficiency, and maintainability systems.
12- “Solitude and Leadership” article by William Deresiewicz — I can’t even describe how inspired I got by this article, do yourself a favor and just read it.
13- “The Greatness Guide” by Robin Sharma — awesome tips. I love the way Robin takes his own view on different encounters and makes them into anecdotes about greatness.
14- “Crossing the Chasm” by Geoffrey Moore — is closely related to the technology adoption lifecycle, where five main segments are recognized: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. According to Moore, the marketer should focus on one group of customers at a time, using each group as a base for marketing to the next group. The most difficult step is to transition between visionaries (early adopters) and pragmatists (early majority). (from Wikipedia)
15- various romantic novels :) you know, to clear the mind. I love to read lightly from time to time.
2- Meditate
Yes, I know it’s a difficult thing to start doing. It took me about two months to create a habit that sticks. In those two months, I tried to practice mindfulness and didn't understand at all why I'm doing it. But, it was COVID-19 times, and I felt the need to have a piece of quiet every day. I was willing to give it a prolonged grace period. And then, one day, while playing with my kids, my younger started a two years old typical tantrum. I said to myself -” Keren, you are energy”. Suddenly I realized, that I just recognized my feelings and let them go. I didn’t act upon it, and I immediately relaxed. I also realized the new quality meditation brought into my life. I am no longer owned by my own feelings.
3- Use Bear
Or any other productivity app, I especially like bear. I find that our lives are packed with streamlines of data, tips, and online and offline encounters, and I use it to save the things that are important to me. The application allows you to create notes and Hashtag them, so you have all your data organized. I use it to save article ideas, inspirational quotes — on anything of interest. I also use it to summarize the books I read and record the main takeaways. Love this app!
Happy 2021! please comment with book recommendations!
