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:
- Read
as often as you can
- 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.”
