13 Jul How to Read More, Learn More, And Make Your Life Better

Reading books is one of the simplest and fastest ways to unlock your potential, improve yourself in every way possible, and truly make your life better.

That’s a fact.

Reading is knowledge.

Reading is power, but reading alone in not enough.

We must take action and use the knowledge, otherwise it’s meaningless.

We are designed to learn. We are meant to grow and develop throughout our lives.

Reading is a habit and a skill we should never stop improving, developing, and using.

Everything we want to know about can be found in the pages of books.

Every struggle you have, every problem you want solved, and every “blueprint” for success is contained in a book or books on the topic of your choice.

Why doesn’t everyone read more?

These are the common barriers that I’ve heard people say.

• “I have no time.”
• “I don’t like to read.”
• “What do I need to read for?” 

NO TIME.

The truth of the matter is we all have the same amount of time each day and no one is too busy to read. Reading can easily become a habit and I’ll show you a very simple way to do this in just a minute. There is no question that we all have periods of time throughout the day that are wasted.  If you think you seriously have no time to read then track your time for a 24 hour time period and see where there are “gaps” of unproductive time in your day.  I guarantee you’ll find these “gaps” and these are the golden opportunities for reading.

We are all busy. But, we need to prioritize what’s most important – constantly developing ourselves.

DON’T LIKE TO READ.

If reading becomes a habit, as I mentioned, you will learn to really enjoy it and better understand the benefits. This is true especially as you take action with the information you learn and the quality of your life improves. Reading should be fun and is fun, once you have “conditioned” yourself to the reading experience. I have met people who are avid readers purely for the fun of it, and I have also met others who view it with dread. But, we should understand why we read which leads me to…

WHY READ?

The biggest thing about reading is we need to have purpose. As it relates here, the purpose of reading is to make ourselves better, to develop, and to greatly benefit from the wisdom and knowledge of others.  Each book you read, there was someone behind it who poured all their knowledge into the pages of that book.  They summarize everything they’ve learned about that particular subject. And, each book is a piece of our own journey in continuous growth.  Why read? Well, it should be fun and enjoyable, but it should be done with the purpose of making us better.  As I mentioned in the beginning, it’s the simplest, fastest way to unlock your potential.

When we understand this, it make things a whole lot better.

And, I’ve said countless times that if you take away one big thing from a book and apply it, it was worth every minute of your time.

There are very few books I’ve read that I would say I didn’t benefit from.

Here are 5 things you can do to read more (or constantly learn more).

ALWAYS CARRY A BOOK WITH YOU

One of the easiest ways to read more is to always carry a book with you. First, you actually have to have books to do that.  Let me say that collecting physical books is my top recommendation.  Forget “borrowing” books from the library, instead I recommend you purchase physical books so that you can consistently refer back to them for continued learning.  My office is insane with books everywhere that I’ve purchased and collected through the years. Books are inexpensive these days and the “average” book is about $10 on Amazon.

Let me get back to the point – alway have a book in your hand, in your bag, or at your immediate disposal. Remember, when I said about finding time to read? Well, when you have a book with you at all times, you WILL have the time to read during a 24 hour time period.

If you ever meet me, please ask me “where’s your book” and I guarantee I’ll show you one or more that I have in my bag or someone very close by.

READ A MINIMUM OF 10 MINUTES A DAY

This is something else I have recommended to some of my good friends who said “they don’t have time.”  Commit to reading for just 10 minutes every day. This is really effective to build the habit of reading, but the real power of this is that 10 minutes almost always leads to much more – usually up to an hour in many cases.  If you say to yourself you’re just going to read for 10 minutes, just the act of “getting started” leads to a successful, productive reading session.  If you commit to the 10 minutes a day rule, I’m telling you that your reading will explode.

THERE’S NO MAGIC

Understand there’s no magic to this. I’ve heard many top “readers who are leaders” say there is no magic to reading. You simply just have to sit down, open up a book, and start reading.  That’s it. To read more, you have to read more. The big things are what I’ve already mentioned, the commitment, the consistency, and really understanding the purpose – to massively improve the quality of your life.

GET ABSTRACT

Here’s one of my favorite resources, although you won’t find too much in the areas of strength or performance training. It’s just a fantastic resource to develop yourself, acquire knowledge, and learn about many other topics in life, such as business, leadership, growth, self improvement, and many other valuable topics.  The resource is GetAbstract.com which is the absolute best books in many different topics that are compressed into 5 page summaries.  It’s reasonably priced and I’ve used this resource for years. Typically, if I like the summary, I’ll end up getting the book, but the summaries are the most important points in the book that are organized into these great 5 page reports.

The tag line at GetAbstact is “know more in less time” and it’s true.  It’s a great resource, depending on your areas of interest. I use it and recommend it, but I do think it’s “supplemental” and does not replace reading full books.

GO AUDIO

The final recommendation is to use audio books, especially if you have a lot of time on the road or may be in a situation where you have sufficient time in the day that you can intently listen to audio versions of great books.  This is a great resource (and sponsor) that I’ve mentioned on the podcast.  I use audio books and think they are an excellent way to learn instead of the “mindless radio” options we have. Audible audio books has a large selection of books and even do offer some of the top health and fitness books, as well.

BOTTOM LINE AND ACTION.

If you’re not reading at least a book a month and building your library, you’re not moving closer to your potential – I’m just being honest.

No one can make you read, you have to want to do it and really understand what’s in it for you.

But, if you’re making excuses and think you have barriers, I here to tell you there aren’t any.

I’ve outlined suggestions above and explained what’s worked really well for me and for so many others.

It’s up to you to use it.