Teacher Eduard Andrei Vasile On The Morning Routines and Habits Of Highly Successful People
An Interview With Sara Connell
Books are food for the soul. I can’t even imagine how difficult it would be to evolve without reading, without knowing other aspects of life or other perspectives.
Beginnings are a Genesis. That means that not only are they a start, but they are also the origin of all that follows. This means that the way we start something, the way we start our day, for example, creates a trajectory for all that follows. How do highly successful leaders start their day in a way that creates a positive trajectory for a successful, effective, productive, and efficient day? How do you create habits that make these routines permanent? How do you get inspired to develop the discipline necessary for such a lifestyle? In this new series, called Morning Routines and Habits Of Highly Successful People, we are talking to successful leaders who can share the morning routines and habits that have helped them to achieve success.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Eduard Andrei Vasile.
Eduard Andrei Vasile is an English teacher and personal development counselor in Romania. Known as “profukool”, which means “cool teacher”, his specialization is in couple relationships and family relationships and he tries as much as he can to offer support to young people and adults, support that he did not receive. He enjoys success among young people and adults who need English language classes or counseling, founding a personal development podcast and a website that includes articles that make us better, more balanced, and more empathetic.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
That would be so much to say! Childhood is not something I remember with great pleasure, living in a conflictual environment and with an abusive father. He was certainly a counterexample of how to be responsible adults. However, my mother and I broke through and managed to make our way in life. My sister and I were raised by my maternal grandparents. Grandma is like our second mother and we still enjoy her boundless love. I also inherited my passion for writing from her, publishing poetry and prose during communism under a pseudonym. Our grandfather passed away in 2016, but he still takes care of us from Heaven.
I certainly liked school. I may have been that annoying student who raised his hand all the time. Being an Olympian in history, I was part of the first delegation of Romanian students in Auschwitz, in partnership with the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, in “March of The Living” in 2012.
The most beautiful memories are from high school, where I did everything I could to fix my father’s mistakes and regain my emotional peace.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
As I said, I’ve always loved school. I was passionate about all subjects. My father didn’t know what school I was in or what class I was in, but it didn’t matter.
Both my mother and my maternal grandparents were nurses in Bucharest, being very passionate about this field.
Grandma was and is a fighter. She lost all her family members at a very young age, whether in fires, floods, or car accidents. She only had us and we only had her. It is a model that I respect and apply in my daily life. I have not met a more determined, sensible, delicate person, passionate about literature, writing, and love. I took from her all that is best, namely to be a decent man in the first place.
From first grade, I wanted to be a teacher. I didn’t take this that seriously, so I became a finance specialist. In 2018, my grandmother saw an ad at a private school looking for English teachers. At the age of 82, my grandmother wrote an e-mail. Oh, yes. Grandma is very connected to all the social media networks, even though she is now 87 years old. “Let me solve this!” she said. A few days later, I became a teacher of English at that school. I don’t even know what my grandmother wrote in that e-mail, but that’s how I became a successful teacher. I will always be grateful to her. I would not do anything else!
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?
In addition to my grandmother I told you about above, I met by chance people who saw potential in me. I knew what I could do, but as you were saying, we need a little encouragement from others. We need confirmation and validation. I met wonderful people who, I think, are my soul mates. They encouraged me to learn to play the piano, although I never took lessons. So now I can play some of Chopin’s compositions on the piano. Chopin to me is like a God.
I remember meeting one of my two best friends on Facebook. He is 20 years older than me and appeared to me by chance in the feed. I noticed that he shared a lot of pictures with paintings, so I asked him what he thought of my paintings. He encouraged me to keep painting, and in 2017 I had my first exhibition. I gave as a gift many of the paintings, being part of my soul.
Two years ago, I met my other best friend, who, coincidentally or not, is 20 years older than me as well. She was already in the field of coaching and made me so interested in the subject that I also became a counselor. We currently hold workshops together and film personal development podcasts.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
Oh, I still remember laughing! In the early hours of counseling, I decided to use self-disclosure. The person I was working with was shy and needed to know that they were not alone in that situation. I started talking about my childhood, but suddenly I realized that time had passed. I talked more than my client. In the end, the client told me that I was a strong person. I started laughing and asked him: Shouldn’t I be the one telling you this?
It was funny, but at the same time, I realized that people have such a great need to be listened to. But also to be heard. It is something we should all practice, whether we are counselors or not. We need to be kind and empathetic.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
I would not have been able to get to where I am today without empathy. In the profession I practice you need to empathize with people’s happiness, their sadness, and their lives. I couldn’t be a good counselor, a good teacher if I didn’t resonate with someone’s thoughts.
We can also talk here about the ability to listen actively. Most of us listen only to answer, which is of no benefit to any party. After all, we need to be listened to and heard too. Here I also talk about the problems I faced as a child. I wish I had the strength to open my soul, but it was so hard! Especially at an early age.
Determination is just as important. It is crucial. Without will, ambition, you can’t accomplish anything in life. What I have built up is with great rigor and will. I have always wanted to push my limits and use my full potential. If my father, for example, did not see the potential in me, I chose to listen to those who said to me: boy, you can achieve a lot!
I’m an author and I believe that books have the power to change lives. Do you have a book in your life that impacted you and inspired you to be an effective leader? Can you share a story?
Books are food for the soul. I can’t even imagine how difficult it would be to evolve without reading, without knowing other aspects of life or other perspectives.
Many books have helped me evolve, but I will mention just one: The Organized Mind: Straight Thinking in the Age of Information Overload — Daniel Levitin. It is really useful in an age where we receive a great deal of information.
We have access to all kinds of information. Good. What do we do with all this information? Will it be assimilated? We must learn to filter what we receive. Not everything we hear is useful. Not everything we see is true. Not everything we are told helps us. We need to know what to take.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I have recently launched a personal development podcast, where together with my friend Cristina, who is a single but happy parent, and also a life coach. On the other hand, I have launched a personal development site that I am sure will help people better understand how they feel and live.
I am working on a calendar that will contain many stories, wisdom and I am sure it will help the world in need. So, I come up with ideas, and to see them flush it out, it’s really fun. That is our mission in life.
I can’t wait for this project to be launched and to help people further.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. This will be intuitive to you but it will be helpful to spell this out directly. Can you help explain to our readers why it is important to have a consistent morning routine?
It is the morning routine that dictates what the day will be like. Here we are talking about your mental and physical state, about your appetite for life, food, fatigue or energy, relationships, concentration. Basically, about everything.
Most of us establish a morning routine that we follow for a few days, after which we forget. Let’s not forget that we need at least 3 weeks to form habits. It’s like we want to become millionaires and work for three days, after which we go back to, say, computer games. We need consistency. You can’t plant seeds today and reap the fruits tomorrow, right? Everything solid and good takes time. So is our life, our future. The way you start your mornings will be the way you start your life again.
Can you please share your optimal morning routine that can create a positive trajectory for a successful, effective, productive, and efficient day. If you can, please share some stories or examples.
I think the advice is good, but the personal examples are exceptional. I’ll tell you how I start each day. I wake up at 7 o’clock. I want to make sure I catch as much of the daylight as possible, but I want it to be at least 8 hours of sleep. Sleep solves many of our problems.
After I wake up, I make my coffee. Yes, I love coffee. As long as I don’t drink too much, I enjoy the smell and its benefits. I listen to music every morning and I have three options. Whether I listen to old French, Italian, or Romanian music from the ’80s. If I don’t choose any of the options, I listen to classical music. Chopin, Beethoven, Mendelssohn. In general, piano music. The calm you have at the beginning of the day will ensure the calm of the whole day. Of course, unless something extraordinary happens.
Before I leave home, I take a cold shower. If you do not know the benefits of cold showers, I advise you to find out. Not all people can take cold showers, so a little study is needed beforehand. I read 15 pages of a book, never news, because I have to leave home soon.
I go to the gym every morning at 9 o’clock. I have a workout designed by a very good coach and so I start my day creative, energetic, fit. The post-workout meal, rich in protein and carbohydrates and some healthy fats, follows. It is rare for daytime events to have the same negative impact after such a morning. Guaranteed!
Speaking in general, what is the best way to develop good habits? Conversely, how can one stop bad habits?
You can’t learn healthy habits if you don’t know which ones are unhealthy. Smoking on an empty stomach, the news in the early hours of the morning, the lack of reading, the hectic discussions, the quarrels, do not help us to have a good day.
The best way to start healthy habits is to start with one. Not more at the same time. Reminders are a very simple and effective way to form new habits. If you know which ones you have to give up, it’s great. If not, try to introduce a good habit.
For example, create a reminder or write on a post to eat fruit and cereal in the morning. Or read a few pages from a book that inspires you. Until it becomes a reflex, you can use these reminders.
The pressure, however, is not good. Don’t put too much effort into yourself. You will succeed, with a lot of tact and patience. We are not robots, we are humans, and habit is our second nature.
You will get rid of a bad habit when you realize for yourself that it hurts you. What those around you say will not be enough. You are the key!
Doing something consistently “day in and day out” can be hard. Where did you get your motivation from? What do you use to motivate you now?
Indeed, you need a lot of discipline to develop discipline. Sounds weird, doesn’t it? You need to get the motivation out of the results you expect. As long as your goals are high, as long as your desires are great, you will surely succeed in gaining the will.
I am motivated by children’s progress in English, for example. That’s why I set out to be the coolest English teacher with the best results. When I see children excited about English or counseling classes, I feel that my mission is accomplished.
What other resources would you suggest to our readers?
I suggest the audience read many books. I’m not just talking about the motivational ones. Any book helps us to look at the world with different eyes. Podcasts are extremely useful and don’t forget post-its! They work miracles! Drink a good coffee in the morning! Exercise regularly! Be healthy! Be peaceful!
Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I’m already working on the podcast and the website. Most of all, I would like to create a freehub for people who need motivation, self-reflection, and guidance in life. It can be a platform to sign up for free. The satisfaction I would receive in return would make all the money!
Let’s be better, more tolerant, more empathetic. The power of example works.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)
I would love to meet J.K. Rowling. In addition to all the creative empires she has created, she is a model of determination and perseverance. She inspires me a lot. :)
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can follow me on Instagram. My account is “profukool” and they can read my articles on www.bornandreborn.com. I would be happy if what I do inspires other people.
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.
