But did you REALLY read that non-fiction book? What secrets did you miss?
The Biggest Leverage
If there is one thing 100% worth doing in life, it is to read books.
When you read a good book, you hang out with the author for a long period of time. You absorb their process of life and how they got to where they wanted to go.
When you read a good book, you go forward years ahead in mindset by absorbing all of the experiences that author had in life and in whatever subject it is that they are talking about. You gain access to years of their accumulated wisdom and experience.
Talk about leverage.
You will automatically absorb insights from their life journey and expertise in a certain subject matter, making it possible for you to accelerate your own personal and intellectual growth.
You will dive into worlds of ever-expanding insights that when used inside your own daily world, will help to expand your life in unimaginable ways.
To have an ongoing circle of ‘author friends’ that you like to hang out with is to have the biggest leverage in life.
"It's not about "educated" v "un-educated." It's about "likes to read" and "doesn't like to read." Naval Ravikant
And what secrets did you miss?
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone where you both find out you have read the same book?
It is such an exciting moment of realizing that perhaps you found a possible friend who speaks the same language and can understand the goosebumps and pages and pages of notes you took while reading it.
“Oh cool! You read that too? Wasn’t it amazing? And that insight about how you can only use the energy your body makes if it is bound to magnesium!??”
And the person goes - “oh really? I must have missed or skipped that part.”
Iike you missed the most important part of the book. Did you REALLY read that book?
I have experienced this many times when health coaching people.
People are great at reading all the health books out there and listening to all the health podcasts. But then why aren’t you applying ANY of that stuff in your life?
I love Naval Ravikant’s views on book reading and life application.
“Reading a book isn't a race - the better the book, the slower it should be absorbed.”
“The smarter you get, the slower you read”
“If you can speed read it, it isn't worth reading”
“Any book that can be easily summarized isn't worth reading”
The thing is, reading a book is not just about getting quickly through it and then making an Instagram post about how this is your 50th read this year.
To read a book is to immerse your body and soul into every word and into what every word connects in you and your life.
To read a book is to be so embedded in it that you hear and feel the emotional subtexts in every cell of your body.
To read a book is to hear all the things the author left unsaid in every chapter.
Then, what to do with all of those insights?
Well, you pick a couple of them to start and then you CONNECT it. You CONNECT it to your process and to your life and then expand it so your life can get just 1% better starting today.
To read a book is to grab on to the insights the author arrived at and then weave them into your life and then ask yourself - WHAT NOW?
Where does this weave into the fabric of my daily life?
How can I incorporate this into my life right away?
Where do I expand from here?
This insight can be a tiny little action or a mindset expansion or just a different way of looking at something.
Sure, you could read a book for overall feel but if you are not connecting and weaving the insights into your life, it is just a waste of time.
There are books and then there are books.
Not all books are worth reading.
And you will know if they are worth reading by how you feel when you read a few chapters and if you get embedded into it. Sometimes, it is not the book but your readiness to go for it.
Your body will know and it will tell you if you are ready to read it: if you feel expansion as you read, then continue. If you feel contracted and a feeling of ‘there is a wall going up’ as you read it, then quit. Yes, quit reading and go on to the next book.
My latest read is THE HOW: notes on the great work of meeting yourself by Yrsa Daley-Ward - my second time reading it - it is just exceptional and it has been helping me to reinvent myself and to find solace and peace in everything that I am. (book soon to be reviewed here).
I 1000000% couldn't agree more!!! I can think of so many times where one insight from a book, that I have taken action on and implemented, has changed my life. You have also given me an insight into why I find it so hard to summarize some of my favorite books...they contain so much goodness it's challenging to capture it in a short summary.