“You will always have your brain with you (until that time when brain transplants are done and you may have someone else’s brain).”

Dale Dubin MD

There is some advice that has been around for a long time. Great ideas stick around. (BAD IDEAS stick around too, but that’s another story). Today’s post is about a great idea that comes with a ironclad guarantee. The guarantee is this:

Read a book a week and you will achieve success in your work and your life.

Most of the people you know don’t have the motivation or discipline to read a book a week. Or they may regard this idea as a foundation for a better future and greater personal success as nonsense. I make this audacious guarantee because I know the answer to the following questions:

How many people do you know read a book a week?

Do you know of any successful individuals who don’t read a lot?
Exactly.

Most of the people who learn about my peculiar reading habit give me a handy excuse for not reading a book a week. Some even get a little defensive, others apologetic.

“I don’t have time. Who has the time anyway?”

Well kids, you make time for what is important. In this time starved society of ours you need just a little bit of creativity to find the time to read. Here’s a list of some practical strategies to read a book a week.

Always Have a Book

Think about the time you spend waiting in lines. If you had a book you could easily squeeze in 5 to 10 minutes of reading. Think of other situations where you could grab 10-15 minutes of reading time. I always bring a book to the barbershop. If you have a book, you can always squeeze in a few minutes of reading.

Watch Less Television…Play Less Video Games

Personally, I stopped playing video games because I was never any good at them. I don’t watch a lot of television. I read.

Be Selective in What You Read

Try to read with purpose. Are you reading for entertainment or to learn something? If you’re trying to learn something, what are you trying to learn? At any given time I am reading between 8 and 10 different books. What you choose to read is not only a function of your personality and interests but also of your mood. I tried to read and finish a complete book before starting another but failed. Quirky yes, but this reading style works for me. Try it.

Read What Interests YOU

At any given moment I am totally and completely unable to tell you which books are on any best seller list. I’m simply not interested in what is selling well. I’m much more interested in books that interest me. We often associate bad feelings with reading because while in school we were forced to read what we were told to read. Well, no one is telling you what to read anymore. Read something, anything you want to learn a little more about.

Listen to Audiobooks

Whether in your car or your iPod, audiobooks are a fantastic way to get more “reading” done in the time you have. Try listening to a book while on the treadmill. This is my kind of multi-tasking.

So where will all of this reading? If practiced with a little bit of passion and purpose your reading will bring a great deal of knowledge and a development of an awareness of the world we live in. When you read a new book every week, you condition your mind to continuously take in new knowledge. Your thinking remains fresh and sharp. Your brain is always churning on new ideas, looking for connections, and synthesizing the input.

Just this afternoon I finished half of Dr. Dubin’s classic Rapid Interpretation of EKG’s. I’m getting more out of this book now than the first time I read it.

Quirky, yes.
So what was the title of the last book you read? And how long ago was that?