Christine Lagarde: Daily Routine

From daily gym sessions to 30km bike rides, Christine Lagarde credits her success to the discipline she learned in synchronised swimming.

Christine Lagarde, the first woman to ever head up the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, likes to credit her life’s success to her synchronised swimming background.

“I learned humility as well as discipline,” she said during a talk at Dublin City University. “Our national coach used to say to us when it gets tough, just grit your teeth and smile and get on with it. That has continued to resonate with me because of my life not as an athlete but as a person; we all face moments of adversity that are tough and your self-esteem is challenged. To grit your teeth and smile and get on with it and move forward has helped me a great deal.”

As one of the most powerful women in the world (Forbes ranked her second, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel), Lagarde is a self-described morning person. She wakes up after getting “six to six and a half” hours of sleep,” as told to Bloomberg, and the first step of her morning routine is “green tea, buckets of it.”

Success is never complete. It’s an endless combat. Each morning one must put one’s capacities to the test once again.