Meta Life Advice request: 8 months to set myself up to become a great investor

Hi all,

I recently accepted an offer from a MF PE shop to join their London office. I'm working in consulting, and I won't start until July of next year so I'll have plenty of time between now and then to physically, psychologically, and intellectually prepare myself for the job.

I want to invest in myself before I start, developing the right skills, habits, traits and mindset that will allow me to be successful on the job and in life.

With that in mind, I wanted to canvas this forum's thoughts to get advice on the best ways to use that time. This could include things like:

• Travel (full disclosure: I plan to resign in April and take 3 months to travel extensively in South America)
• Books to read or podcasts to listen to (PE / investing-related, or otherwise)
• Online classes / courses
• Career planning
• Meditation
• Exercise
• Take the GMAT / research B-schools
• Networking
• Anything else I'm not thinking about

Finally, before someone says it, I'm not going to base my life plan, or even the next 8 months, entirely on the advice of WSO. However, I think this forum is full of relatively motivated and successful people who are at various stages on a track I'd like to go down, and I'm keen to canvas opinions here to inform my approach.

Thanks in advance for the input!