- For the last three years I've been traveling
to Zurich more than 200 times.
In fact, I spent 50% of my last three years there.
This video I wanna share with you
the three habits I learned that changed my life.
Welcome to Zurich, Switzerland.
(gentle upbeat music)
Hey guys, welcome back to the channel.
If you're new here, my name is Alejandro.
I'm based in the UK, and I travel to understand life.
So I spent my last three years, traveling back and forth
all the time between London and Zurich,
as I had a big project there.
Besides visiting many places in Switzerland,
across all country, and I can probably
make 10 different videos about this,
I had the fortune to interact with local people
on a regular basis.
And there are 3 things I picked up,
that are now habits part of my life.
These three things are definitely the compound interest
of my self-improvement.
Also worth mentioning that I even got engaged
in Switzerland.
So you guys know the magnitude
and the impact that this country has in my life.
I wanna save you time so I'm leaving timestamps below.
Feel free to skip and watch the one you actually care.
Let's get started.
Number one, PEAR system.
Plan, execute, adjust, repeat.
Every project that I've done with Swiss people was the same.
We spent a lot of time on planning and seriously a lot.
Weeks and sometimes even months.
We were over engineering even simple things,
not even in the UK I spent that amount of time
on just planning and by planning I mean things
like idea generation, scoping, tasks,
resources, timelines, controls
and different angles to make projects
at least in theory, successful.
Also quantifying these things were critical.
Agendas, goals, objectives, outcomes, everything
needed to be super, super, super clear beforehand.
And very important, a due date for absolutely everything.
And naturally the next step was the execution.
And here's the big thing,
because technically after planning so much
we should expect great results, right?
It was not always the case, but I have to say
that the ability to quickly react was a game changer.
And this is related to the next step.
Adjust.
Things are not always perfect
and small adjustments can have massive results.
That was exactly what happened.
Even some of those adjustments were planned in advance.
Like there was Plan B, Plan C
and sometimes even Plan D, not always of course
but with the right system in place,
it was much easier to find alternatives
when things were not perfect.
And finally, repeat.
After getting the circle right
and make continuous improvement, it was about repeating.
Funny enough, every time there were opportunities
to adjust and improve.
So it was obvious that there was no perfect plan
and not even perfect execution.
So I got in this cycle of spending time planning,
executing, adjusting and repeating.
Now days I implement these simple four steps
in many of the things I do in life.
But my biggest takeaway here, there are no shortcuts
to success and consistency is instrumental,
because goals are good to get the direction
but systems are the ones that will make us progress.
And I feel like we're happier when we make progress
in any aspect of life.
Number two, work-life balance.
This one is interesting because by law,
the maximum a Swiss company can ask you to work
is 45 hours a week.
Apart from some manual jobs, which allow 50.
That's relatively high compared to other countries
with France on 35 hours and the UK on 36.5 hours,
at least by law and according
to the World Economic Forum, right?
We know that in reality is probably more hours
in all these countries.
However, workers in Switzerland are generally
considered to have a good work-life balance
and I've actually seen it
in real life and had several conversations
with them to get their thoughts on that.
Also, according to the OECD Better Life survey,
the share of employees in Switzerland
working very long hours is lower than the OECD's average
and Swiss cities are regularly ranked
as having amongst the best quality of life in the world.
From experience lunch breaks are important.
The culture of part-time work and the high salaries are some
of the things that contribute to good work-life balance.
In fact, it's very common that people use their lunch breaks
to go to the gym, as going after work is very unlikely
because it's time for family and you really respect
that in Switzerland.
In Zurich, generally you don't arrive
to a meeting late.
Yes of course, few minutes is still acceptable.
But I mean, not really late, like in countries
such as Spain and Italy for instance.
People respect time much more than in many other countries.
Your time is as valuable as their time.
So why don't we both respect it?
But you also don't leave
for your lunch break a minute past noon.
Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit, but it's around that time.
And if it's summer, jumping into the lake
to swim with the swans, is an acceptable way
to spend your lunch hour.
If you eat a sandwich at your desk,
people will see it as a weird thing
unless you went to the gym or you had an appointment
and because you ran out of time you needed
to eat at your desk.
Whereas, in places like London and New York
it's weird to leave your desk.
(laughing)
In fact, I have couple of videos talking
about life in London in case you are interested,
please feel free to explore the channel further.
I used to go to the Uetliberg at least once every week
and excuse me for my bad Swiss German.
Uetliberg is Zurich's very own mountain
from where we have beautiful views of the city and lake
and even a glimpse of the Alps.
Hey, don't get me wrong,
I'm not saying it's everywhere like this
but at least from my experience in those three years,
partially living and working in Switzerland,
I could see these things very often and still have friends
over there that apply all those things that I mentioned.
Number three, minimalism.
Shopping is like a national sport in the UK and the US.
In Switzerland, while people love to spend their money,
the attitude to hitting the shops feels quite different.
For one thing, most shops are shut on Sundays.
There's less variety and everything
is relatively expensive, even online.
Of course salaries are higher,
in absolute terms compared to the rest of Europe.
But it really made me rethink the amount
of time I personally dedicated to shopping.
And I really feel much better buying less
because sometimes in Zurich, also generally in Switzerland
my sustainability side woke up.
Swiss people they also understand the impact
of human activity on climate change
and are keen to avoid making things worse.
Even things like AC, right?
I'm gonna give you an example.
We all know already that this not common
in residential places, let's say our houses,
but also it's not common in offices either.
So in summer it's hot and people don't have AC in the office
and there's multiple explanations,
but once few Swiss colleagues told me, ask yourself
if you really need to spend this amount
of energy to please yourself for few hours
of hot weather and is it worth?
If the answer is yes, fine, get a fan.
But if it's not worth, please do not complain.
Boom. (beep)
(laughing)
That was crazy, I still remember like, wow, mind blowing.
What's interesting is that commercial centers such
as shopping smalls, they do have AC
but offices definitely not something super common.
And you know, all these little things are always
on my mind and move me to action in many aspects of my life.
Final thoughts.
No doubts Zurich is a place
that really show me the value of things,
how to appreciate more life
and understand our journey is not just work.
There's more than that.
Nature is a key factor, to keep me grounded
and something I truly respect.
I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed nature in Switzerland.
I had the fortune to travel east, west, north, south
in Switzerland and nature is one of my best memories ever.
In fact, one of my dreams is
to live really, really close to nature.
Shh.
Don't tell anyone, but I'm tired of cities.
So the PEAR system, including time management of course,
striking a better work-life balance
and approaching minimalism are the three habits
that became part of my life.
Do I miss Switzerland?
Yes very much.
Do I want to travel back?
Yes of course.
Is that the place I want to live right now?
No, it's not.
Why?
Because I want to keep traveling to understand life
and meet amazing people from different cultures, languages,
backgrounds, ethnicities and religions, and so on.
How can I understand life
by reading a book and not seeing it myself?
If you like this video, you might also want to check
this video over here about 3 lessons I learned
in Berlin and why that trip is a must.
Thanks for watching.
I'll see you next time.
(gentle soothing music)