Reading is The Key to Learning Anything

If you are looking to be the best you can be, I don’t think there is a better activity for you than reading.  When you talk to people today, it is sad how little we read books that expand our horizons and push ourselves to grow and think a little.

I understand that there is an inordinate number of distractions out there today, all vying for our short attention spans, and books seem to be getting the short end of the stick. But, unfortunately, with that, so are we.

Books Changed My Life

I am going to champion the wonder of books and the magic they carry in their pages, just waiting for you to read their words: the imagination that they provide, the knowledge, and the answers to questions.

I was fortunate to have been a reader since I was four years old, reading books with my parents and myself as often as possible. So, as a child, I was aware of the power of words to catapult your imagination and stimulate thoughts of places you have never been, and expand your mind.

As I grew older, the importance of reading fell behind other interests like sports, girls, and money.  I was subject to the same time restraints everyone else is.  I forgot what power was hidden in the pages of these works of art. Each book possesses an opportunity to learn and grow. Yet, I did not take them right away.

Eventually, as life has unfolded, I finally started to ask some questions that nobody I knew could answer.  How we positively live life, and what being alive on this planet was all about?  I wasn’t the first one and won’t be the last to ask deep questions. Fortunately, I was able to find some great guides for this journey, and they were all located in the pages and words of books.

The Key to the Kingdom

The first really great book I read was called The Kingship of Self-Control and The Majesty of Calmness, by William George Jordan, which he wrote about 100 years ago, but it is a guide for your behavior, most part applicable today.

Dealing with honesty, greed, calmness, how to treat others was a revelation, and I have him to thank for my reawakening in literature.  Since I read that book, I have read somewhere between 60 and 100 books on various topics, but always being drawn toward philosophy, psychology, and how life works.

The more I read and learned, the more I wanted to learn. There were many things that nobody had ever told me, so not only was I entering a new world I had never visited, it was a world I didn’t even know existed.

There are other philosophies about reality or that our minds work a certain way because conditioning was an exciting discovery.

There isn’t any force that could stop me from learning more and reading now.  That is a passion and a desire that I would hope for everyone.

One of the saddest conversations I have had recently was with a high school student who stated clearly that most of her classmates didn’t see the value in reading and, in fact, couldn’t remember that last time they read a book.

They stated that they didn’t see the value in it. You can watch things on television or on your computer.  This is true, but you will never have the intricate connection that absorbing words from a page into your mind will give you.

This connection is more powerful than any television show you will ever see and is available to anyone literate.  Once you have the power of literacy, all you have to do is apply it, and there you go, you are off to whatever pinnacle you are reaching for.

The Dream Builder

For myself, reading helped crystallize what my dreams were, and it may help others do the same thing.  Read a book about something you are interested in and then ask questions about the information you learn.  That will inevitably lead you to another book and more knowledge, and before long, you will be smarter than you ever imagined possible.

Knowledge is power, and power will help you get anywhere you want to go, regardless of

your economic background or family situation can achieve whatever you want by applying yourself in reading.  You can learn from the mistakes of others, building on their philosophies, adopting what proves right to you, and discarding what doesn’t seem to fit. Unfortunately, this is learning and seems to be a lost art in our overly mandated education system today.

So if you are wondering about anything and curious about how to be successful or how to run a business or climb a mountain or sail a boat, all that you need to know is located somewhere in a book for you to discover, read, and read and master.  All you have to know is where to look.

Read for your mind, read for your soul, and read for your success.  There isn’t anything you can’t accomplish through the power of literacy.

 

Some of the books I have read and would recommend checking this link. 

Get a move on and read, get smarter, become successful.