by with Comments Off on Reading and Applying

For the last 18-20 months I’ve been reading A LOT. After finishing high school, I think I read one book in four years. So when I got a summer internship, I decided to take my entire paycheck and use it to buy books. I think I just finished my 54th book since December 2014 (currently June 2016, so 19 months or so). As soon as I put one book down, I pick the next one up.

There’s no doubt in my mind that I’ve completely changed as a person as a result of these 54 books. My outlook on life is totally different in every aspect. I would recommend everyone should at least read a book a month. Heck, even 4 or 5 books a year can change your life for the better. I’m kind of getting to the point now though where I’m reading books for the sake of bumping the numbers up. Yes it’s good to read, but it’s more important to absorb and apply.

Stop just READING and start APPLYING

So, I’m going to try and SLOW DOWN the rate at which I read. Instead, I want to try and extract MORE VALUE out of the books. I’m not completely certain how I will achieve this, but here are a few of my ideas:

  • Start recapping and summarising books. On one hand, hopefully it will help others that would rather spend 10 minutes reading my summary than 6 hours reading the entire book. On the other hand, it will give me more of a purpose and an analytical lens while I’m reading. I’ll be attempting to extract the best ideas from each book. You can check some of these out here.
  • I’ve started the “What You Will Learn” podcast with my mate, Adam Jones. Each episode, we’ll be reviewing the books we’ve read. Again, we’re focusing on extracting the best stuff and presenting them. We are trying to help people either make more informed choices of what to read next, or just listen to the podcast to get the most important information. You can find us on iTunes and subscribe, or you can listen here.
  • APPLYING what I’m learning. I want to extract the most actionable items from each book and actually DO them, not just read about them. On the podcast, we’ll be committing to one challenge from each book.

 

I’ll report back and let you know how not only reading but also applying has improved my life! Let me know if you have any other suggestions for getting the most out of the books I’m reading.