Readers Are Leaders, One Book A Week
13. Readers are leaders, one book a week.
When I finally finished with graduate school I made one promise, it was to never read another book again. Big mistake. I only made the problem worse by telling myself that I had no time to read. Then I came up with the excuse that I had four or five trade magazines to read each month and that was all the reading I could fit in. These trade magazines were important and would keep me up-to-date on things in my profession, things that I could apply to help with patients. However, I have never used one thing I have read in a trade magazine to improve patient care. One reason is that I was never really reading them. Instead I was skimming them to see if there were any articles that looked worth reading. I would also look at the ads and the pictures to see if anything caught my eye. The truth was that I barely read them and when I did, they provided little benefit. The other excuse that I did not have time to read was untrue; I simply chose to do other things with my time than read. When I began to read, my life improved 50% right on the spot. It did so twofold. First, it was the type of books I chose to read; and second, it was shedding activities I was doing when I wasn’t reading.
Let’s start with the choice of books you make. Remember, our brain is a computer so we should be very careful what we decide to put into it. The same goes for reading books. I believe you choose books that are going to improve your life and in turn the lives of the people around you. I choose to read the so-called “self-help” books. Knowing that the better place I am in improves the environment around me, why wouldn’t I? These books provide so many diamonds for you to use and apply and share. This is exactly what I am doing with you. The problem is not that you can’t handle the job; the problem is you don’t have the Tools or instructions for the job.
I try to take two to three things out of all the books I read. You are not going to do everything a book suggests, but by incorporating a few things you will be helped on your path to success. Just like you should stay away from the newspaper and tabloids, stay away from garbage books as well. Choose not to put garbage into your computer. A strategy for reading that my mentor taught me was to read a book once. Then read it a second time and highlight certain parts that are important. Then read it one last time and take notes. By doing so, you have turned the book into a quick reference guide that you can go back to over and over.
It can take a long time trying to find something that you read in a book some time ago. Remind yourself you are trying to do the things that the most successful people are doing and this is definitely one of them. Read enough good stuff and you will be writing your book to help others in your own special way.
Remember I also mentioned reading helps you stay away from things that don’t particularly foster success; things like texting, talking on the phone, playing on the internet, video games, too much TV, and so on and so on. You know the things that you are doing during the day that are providing little progress towards reaching your goals and assisting the overall plan of success. I like to read before I go to bed. That way it sits with me right before I sleep and it actually helps me fall asleep.
The more GOOD books you read, the more you will want to read. You will find that the distractions and excuses you used to not read will become less appealing. You will find that you will be able to help more people as your headspace starts to grow. Also, if you try to give someone a book to help them and they choose not to read it, well, you have done your best to help out. You can’t make them grab the life preserver. A large portion of where I am today is due to the fact that I decided to read more, read well and by doing so, rid myself of distractions that were holding me back from where I wanted to go.