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- How I Became a Book-Worm
These tips will help you to read more this year.
How do I know?
Because I used to hate reading.
I struggle with concentrating, so I would often read a page, get to the final sentence, then realise that I didn’t remember anything I had just read.
But everything changed on the 30th December 2020.
Before I share what exactly changed, let’s dive into the 3 tips that will help you to read more this year:
💬 Recommendations
Whenever someone personally recommends a book to you, buy it immediately.
A book will distill years, if not decades, of someone’s knowledge, experience and wisdom.
A book recommendation from a friend is them endorsing that the author’s wisdom is worth checking out for yourself.
For what is usually £5-£20, you can own someone’s wisdom packaged in a bite-sized format.
It is one of the most cost-effective ways to get wiser.
But how does this help you to read more?
The key part is when it’s a personal recommendation from a friend.
Whether consciously or subconsciously, our brains understand that there is value in reading as books make a difference.
Especially if you read the book that was recommended - that specific book has positively impacted your friend enough for them to speak about it.
It’s difficult to ignore the desire to experience that same positive experience.
Use their recommendation as motivation to get wiser by reading.
📚 Put It Down…
This next tip might sound contradictory to the last piece of advice.
You don’t owe a book anything.
If you are reading a book, it’s giving you no value and you don’t have any desire to continue reading that book, stop reading it.
The reason why is simple.
There’s another book out there that is worthy of your attention.
If, like me, you enjoy browsing YouTube for a source of wisdom or entertainment, the following experience may sound familiar:
While scrolling, you see an eye-catching thumbnail with a title that interests you.
You click on the video, and enjoy the first 30 seconds of it.
But another 2 minutes pass, and you find that the video is not delivering on what the thumbnail, title and first 30 seconds promised you.
In this situation, you don’t keep watching that video, hoping that it’ll get good eventually.
Instead, you click on an alternate video with the hope that it’ll be better than the last.
Reading books is exactly the same.
The only difference is that you’ve spent money on a book, so we feel like we owe it our attention to justify the money spent.
This is called the Sunk-Cost Fallacy.
Don’t stick with something just because you’ve spent money on it if it’s giving you no value and you have no desire to finish it.
Instead, move on to the next one!
🎧 When You Can’t Read, Listen
The reason why I have been able to read so much since the end of 2020 is because I stopped reading and started listening.
I didn’t just start with an audiobook. I purchased an Audible subscription - the big one with 24 credits per year.
I made a New Years Resolution, and I went all-in on making it a reality.
I went from reading 0 books in 2020 to reading 42 in 2021.
And even better than being able to boast about that stat: I absolutely loved it.
By simply reading books in a new format, I became a book-worm.
If you’re struggling to read books, switch to listening to audiobooks.
Bonus tip! You can listen to audiobooks whilst carrying out tasks like washing the dishes or going for a run.
I found that stacking these habits with listening to audiobooks would result in me getting excited at the thought of doing housework or exercise.
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✍️ Journal Prompts
• Would you consider yourself a reader?
• Have your friends recommended any books to you lately?
• Audiobooks, physical books, digital copies - which do you prefer?
Consider journaling through the above questions yourself.
👍 Recommendations
Today’s recommendations look different to my usual recommendations.
I want to share a list of books that are important to me, and could be life-changing for you too!
Check out this list of books that I shared on LinkedIn earlier this week as part of the Random Acts of Wiseness.
And if you enjoy this style of visual, follow me on LinkedIn where I’ll share more resources like this in 2024.
✍️ What I’m Working On
Besides working on a number of free resources that I aim to release in here and on LinkedIn this year, I’ve begun piecing together my plan to start posting on YouTube this year.
I want to start encouraging you to get wiser in video!
If you have any suggestions about content that you would love to see me share on YouTube this year, please let me know by replying to this email! I’ll respond to each email!
And if you want to be one of the first to be notified when I upload my first video, you can subscribe here:
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😊 Thank You!
Thanks for checking out this issue of the WISER Newsletter. If you have any feedback, I would love to hear it!
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Catch you in the next issue!
Thanks,
Michael
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