Self-Improvement Principles -- Your New Habit—Reading. Become a Reader of Various Topics and Amaze Your Friends and Pets!

 By Denise Miller Holmes, The Witty Wise Woman

 

Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed. I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book's autograph. I am a proud non-reader of books. –Kanye West

 

Always pursue wisdom. It’s sooooo much better than pursuing stupid. –Denise Miller Holmes

This could be the new habit that transforms your ability to excel and succeed in your goals. I know this habit transforms a person’s life, because it did mine.

I own a Kindle, and sometimes I think it grows out of my body like a tumor–the kind of tumor you dress up in a pretty flowery case. I’m rarely without it.

I became obsessed with reading around 1995, and it was the key to my transformation as a person, and as a writer.

There are two things to think about when you’re trying to expand your mind and achieve success through reading:

1. Read as often as you can
2. Read as much variety as you can

It is the variety and the consistent creation of neurotransmitters that cause you to start seeing the world in a much deeper way. You’ll see how things connect. This brings success. But, as the quote below suggests, reading a variety of topics and genres is key if you want to grow your brain.

Nikola Tesla was a fan of this technique of consistently reading a wide variety of topics:
“I learned a dozen languages, studied literature and arts, spent my best years in libraries reading everything that came my way, and though I sometimes felt I was losing time, I quickly realized it was the best thing I ever did.”

In 1976 I visited Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s Estate. He had a lazy susan on his library table. The turnstile device was not full of food—it was full of books! Yep, he would sit at his table and load the lazy susan with books on multiple subjects. He’d read one topic for a while, then he’d turn the device one turn and read the next topic. His lazy susan held seventeen books.
Yowza!

You may say that both of these men, Tesla and Jefferson, were brilliant to start with, and because you are not brilliant, this type of reading is not doable for you.  I don’t know. I think it’s the opposite: I think that people who read like locusts devouring the crops become brilliant.

You may say that these men had time, and time is the one commodity you have the least of. Good point, but it’s still doable, especially with the “text-to-speech” feature on the Kindle, which reads the text to you, and all the audiobooks that now exist.

Let’s look at how the average, busy person might add the habit of super reading to their day. You can read . . .

• On the potty. (Ha! That made me smile.)
• Instead of watching fifteen minutes of television
• While you eat (if you’re eating alone)
• Coffee breaks
• Waiting in the car to pick someone up
• While waiting for the waiter to bring your food, if you are alone
• While doing the dishes (using the ‘text-to-speech’ feature)

If you are saying to yourself, “Denise, you are crazy to plop this on my plate,” I’m going to tell you first that you need to aim at making reading a habit. Once reading is a habit, it won’t feel hard. Trust me. Once any behavior turns into a habit, It. Is. Effortless. (I know this because of a book called Effortless by Greg McKeown.) [Smile]

Tip: To decrease difficulty, start by reading books that pertain directly to your goals. Then, expand to stuff you like (such as gardening or movie trivia). THEN, you get to take the big step and read a book on American history, or a book on how people gain and maintain power (such as the 48 Laws of Power—take this one with a grain of salt. Some of its lessons are evil).

I like books on how people think and behave. Books on sales techniques can often give you both insight into human behavior and psychology and techniques on how to sell that widget you’ve just designed.

You get the point. Start slow with topics you like then expand. Then, when people say, “What’s that thing growing out of your hand?” You casually reply, “Oh that? That’s just my Kindle.”