What Did You Learn Today?

– Rick Segel

When I was growing up, my parents had a nightly bedtime ritual for my sister and me. We had to brush our teeth, take our bath, put our dirty clothes in the hamper, and then jump into bed for that special time with one of our parents. We would always have a short story, and before we said our prayers my parents would ask one question every night that, in retrospect, has shaped our lives. The question was, “What did you learn today?” So many times we would say, “Nothing.” Then they would always expand that question in a fun way by saying things like “something small” or “something big” or “something you will never ever forget” or “something that you will forget tomorrow”. (Like Sally Johnson was a meany) If we still said nothing (which would never really happen) our parents would say, “Well I guess today was a bad day.”

The reason we rarely said “nothing” was because of the sheer excitement our parents would demonstrably show when we told them what we learned. Some days we might have 5 or 6 things we learned and they would get so excited and tell us that today was a stupendous, miraculous, and /or sensational day.

That little daily exercise shaped my life and the way I have lived it. My sister and I are never-ending learners. I have a section on my computer of the things I learned today. It is right on the desktop of my computer and it is storage place for any new promotional ideas I learned, a new word or phrase, or teaching or writing techniques. No, I don’t make entries every day but I always carry a manila folder with me of the things I learned to enter into computer later. Before I used a computer, I tracked what I learned in steno pad spiral notebooks. When I recently moved, I went through my boxes or pads and read my thoughts from years before and I saved the best pages of the books I read and reluctantly threw the rest away. I then put the notes in my manila folder to enter into my computer. I told myself that I better plan to enter all this stuff soon because my folder was getting too big and I do carry it in my computer bag everywhere I go.

We went to a gala celebration on Saturday night of the New England Speakers Association’s 20th Anniversary, which brought people in from all across the country. It was just a wonderful affair. I am a past president of this group and it was great seeing all of my old speaker friends since we rarely get together because of everyone’s travel schedule. Feeling great about the event, we walked to our car only to see the back window of our SUV shattered and many things stolen—all of our Father’s day presents, gifts for the grandchildren whom we were visiting the next day, and of course my computer bag. One of my closest friends parked beside me and her car was also vandalized the same way.
I started to list all the things I kept in my bag, such as the computer, an extra wallet with back up identification, two credit cards, all my cords, my cell phone and of course my manila folder of the things I learned. I then realized I hadn’t backed up the “the things I learned file” for about one month.

The computer will be replaced as will my cell phone, cords and credit cards. Most of it will hopefully be insured but I lost the irreplaceable—the things that make me who I am. It’s amazing that the things that are most important to us have little to do with money. My wife reminded me that I was attending some workshops and seminars next month and I would be full of new ideas. That actually eased the pain because my quest for learning has been ingrained in me from the time I was small and IS the reason for all of the success in my life.

Sometimes it takes a tragedy to appreciate what we have. Maybe that’s the thing I learned today. Maybe it was the feeling of getting my mind expanded with a class or workshop that actually numbed the pain. Take a class, attend a seminar (you can even attend one of mine), read a book, start your own file, or just commit yourself to constant and never-ending learning. Ask yourself the question, “What did you learn today?” Then apply it. It might just change your world. It did mine.