I couldn’t believe my luck. A few weeks after I had finished reading the excellent book The Compound Effect, I met the author Darren Hardy. In addition to his title of best-selling author, he is the editor of Success Magazine. Think about it. He interviews successful people all day long – for a living! I wanted to get his insight to what makes them tick. I asked him:
“What is the one thing all successful people have in common?”
Without hesitation, he answered quickly:
“They are consummate learners.”
It makes you think. Are YOU a consummate learner? One thing we can do and most of us want to do is read. Is reading a part of your daily habit?
“I don’t have time!” you say. But do you? Here’s how I did it.
5 Tips:
1) Start with just 15 minutes a day. This adds up super fast. EngageRx is broken down into 15-minute chunks. This makes it easy. At 15 minutes a day, you will finish the program in just 4 months!
2) Schedule an appointment. Like anything else that is important, your self-development should be at the top of the list. Would you ever miss an appointment with a colleague or client? Think of your time to read as an appointment just like any other. You booked it and then can’t miss it.
3) Choose a trigger. When trying to create a new habit, link it to another. Can you attach reading to your coffee or your lunch break or when waiting to see the doctor. Perhaps it could be when you are cooling down from a workout. I do it right before my workout in the morning.
4) Turn off the screen and go to sleep! You may be too tired to read at night. I hear you. So I used to just surf mindlessly through the net. And then I had the idea to just turn it off! Turn it off and go to sleep.
Then, and this is important, wake up earlier in the morning and dedicate that time to what is important – like reading! I love getting up early – before my family gets up! I love my time each morning – just before my exercise hour I ‘take 20’. Twenty minutes of reading. I love it. And I could NOT do it if I didn’t turn off the screen and go to bed early! It’s completely worth it.
5) Make yourself accountable. Share your goal with people around you. Better yet, create a journal club. We found that people who participant in EngageRx in a group end up doing better than those who do it individually.
3 Warnings:
- Like any new habit you may fall off the wagon here and there. That’s okay. Just get back on the next day.
- It may feel slow at first but stick with it. If you don’t read 15-minutes every day, the next week will go by anyway. But the next week could go by and you will have almost 2 hours (or 1 module of EngageRx) finished!
- You will soon feel energized and invigorated with all the great things you are learning. You won’t be able to recall when reading each day was NOT part of your life.
3 Facts:
From #1 bestselling book, Rich Habits – The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals.
- 88% of wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day for education or career reasons vs. 2% of poor.
- 86% of wealthy believe in lifelong educational self-improvement vs. 5% of poor.
- 86% of wealthy love to read vs. 26% of poor.
3 Quotes
- “If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Joseph Addison
- “The book you don’t read, won’t help.” – Jim Rohn
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