For the past 6 months, I have re-trained the habit to just sit down and read. I read whenever I get the chance – in bed, during my free-time, before class starts, on the bus… And in those 6 months, I have completed nearly 30 books – even reading some more than once. If you do the math on that one, that’s reading about a book per week!
After leaving high-school with somewhat of a distaste for reading, I never would have imagined myself reading for pleasure in the coming year, especially not to the extent that I mentioned. Why would I? Books were painful – my generation has grown up with information readily available at the press of a button – the idea of reading through hundreds of pages of a book to learn something was absurd.
It wasn’t until this past summer that I re-trained my mind to digest the large amounts of timeless information that we find in books. It began when I received the book, The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, as a complimentary gift from Thrive Market. The cover made bold claims about completely transforming your life through a set of success principles that had been synthesized into a morning routine. It looked intriguing so I gave it a shot and started reading. The book was just over 100 pages long and took me four days to finish.
The effect it had on me truly was transforming.
That book first introduced me into the world of personal development; it also jump started me on the path to becoming my best version through the 7-step morning ritual it described. Instead of hitting snooze over and over again and immediately checking my phone when I wake up, my mornings became full of energy and put me in a mindset to attack the day.
Just by changing those habits in the morning, my days soon became full of passion, purpose, clarity, and direction. It was seriously life-changing.
One of the habits the book helped me to form during my “Miracle Morning” was the habit of reading. I started with just a few pages each morning — this soon turned into a chapter — and soon a few chapters. By the end of the week, I was 300 pages in on the next book I decided to read. I continued this process each morning and I soon found myself enjoying my books so much that I would read at night, during the day, and basically whenever I got the chance.
Building up that habit of enjoying the reading process took about a month’s time, and it was very slow and difficult at first. I must emphasize that trying to jump all at the beginning is a sure-fire way to fail; small steps and tiny achievements every single day are what will make a habit stick, not burn out and boredom.
As I’ve said, it has been about 6 months and the amount of knowledge I have accumulated in that time is absolutely monumental. And I’m not talking about knowledge that I can use to show-off in conversations; I’m talking about knowledge of how the world, money, and people around me function that I can immediately apply to my own life. It’s knowledge that, when applied, will put me one step closer to becoming my best version.
Rather than talk about all the knowledge I’ve gained from each book, I’m going to list all of the books I’ve read since starting with “The Miracle Morning.”
August – December: Books Completed
High Performance Habits – Brendon Burchard
The Millionaire Fastlane – MJ DeMarco
How To Make Lots Of Money (Without A Real Job) – Steve Pavlina
the Shortness Of Life – Seneca
Eat That Frog – Brian Tracy
How Not To Be Wrong: The Power Of Mathematical Thinking – Jordan Ellenberg
The Sixth Extinction – Elizabeth Kolbert
The Rhythm Of Life – Matthew Kelly
The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People – Stephen R. Covey
Personal Development For Smart People – Steve Pavlina
The New Primal Blueprint – Mark Sisson
Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind – T. Harv Eker
How To Win Friends And Influence People – Dale Carnegie
Think And Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
The Power Of Now – Eckhart Tolle
Algorithms To Live By: The Computer Science Of Human Decisions – Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths
Robot Futures – Nourbakhsh
The Miracle Morning – Hal Elrod
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck – Mark Manson
Expert Secrets: The Underground Playbook For Creating A Mass Movement Of People Who Will Pay For Your Advice – Russell Brunson
Seven Brief Lessons On Physics – Carlo Rovelli
Man’s Search For Meaning – Frankl
The Quick And Easy Way To Effective Speaking – Dale Carnegie
Designing Your Life – Bill Burnett & Dave Evans
Game Changers: What Leaders, Innovators, and Mavericks Do To Win At Life – Dave Asprey
…And the whole Harry Potter Series
Books in bold are those in which I highly recommend everyone to read, then re-read, then re-read again; their messages were extremely powerful. However, go ahead and read all of them, and then don’t stop. Find more books, fill you mind with more positive and growth-oriented ideas, and put those ideas and knowledge to work for you.
The significance of literature is highly underrated in our society today. What we need to realize is that experts/professionals who have dedicated their lives to certain subjects, have left behind all of their knowledge and expertise in the form of writing for others to digest. Reading is one of the best ways to learn from the best of the best. And when surround yourself with ideas and timeless principles from the best of the best, your whole world will change.
So start now. Pick up a book, any book. And start with one page. Later, read another page. The next day, read 3 pages; the following day, 7 pages; the following day, 20 pages; you will soon find yourself immersed in a world of knowledge you otherwise would not have known existed.
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