Reading Your Way to Success

Austin
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1
Reading Your Way to Success

What Makes Reading so Important

Have you ever wondered what makes some people more successful than others? In most cases it’s the amount of time someone spends reading. Reading gives you a chance to look into the mind of someone that came before you or has more experience. Another common trend with people that read often is the formation of a keystone habit. Keystone habits are habits that are so influential on your life that creating one will change how you view the world. It can take many hours of work to create the habit of reading but the trade off is more happiness and success. Let’s take a look at ways to create a new habit.

How to Get Started

Getting started is always the hardest part of any task. When it comes to reading it can be even more difficult. I find this stems from being forced to read books we’re not interested in for a significant portion of our lives (think back to school).
  1. The first step to getting started will be experimenting and finding out what kind of books you are interested in reading. If you can’t decide take a look at best sellers on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Narrow it down to a few books and pick the one that you think will be the most entertaining.
  2. The second step is to read small portions every day. The best way to do this is find a time that you can consistently read or 15 to 30 minutes every day. Many people like to read right at the end of the work day. Another great choice is reading before bed. Reading before bed can be a great choice because it gets you away from electronics and calm you down.
  3. The third step will be to set goals and monitor your progress. At first it may be hard to stay consistent but make sure you have goals that push hard enough that you have to try but, not so hard that you give up. As you achieve your goals right down what you’ve accomplished even if it’s as simple as reading 1 chapter. No achievement is too small when creating new habits.
Once you have started to take the small steps you need to create your new habit you will realize that you want to keep learning more. As this desire for new resources grows you will need to start exploring what reading options are out there waiting for you.

Explore Your Reading Resources

Sometimes reading a book isn’t the best option. They can be difficult to transport and can be hard to read without the right lighting. Don’t let that get you done, there are greener pastures. Technology has advanced to the point where no matter where or what you’re doing you have access to reading or books of some form. Just to name a few we have eBooks, magazines, forum posts, blog posts, and to really get into left field audio books. Every reading resource you can find is worthwhile to look into. Sometimes you have to experiment to find out what is best for you. Speaking of what’s best for you the only way to know is to track your progress.

Tracking Your Progress

Statistics may be a boring topic but it’s the only way to optimization. When you take the time to look back at what you have accomplished you will see the progress and be excited by it. There are many way to track your progress when you read.
  • Log all the books you’ve read – Logging all of your books lets you see trends in what you enjoy reading, how quickly you read, and lets you go back to reread in the future.
  • Make Notes – It can be difficult to remember what you have read. Making notes allows you to refresh your memory without having to start from scratch. You can use note cards, notebooks, or even the book itself to take notes. Don’t forget you can highlight books too just make sure they are yours and not borrowed.
  • Quiz Yourself – We all know taking tests and quizzes can be boring or even stressful. Quizzing yourself on a book can be as simple as asking yourself what just happened or as complicated as creating a test. A test could be flashcards, multiple choice, true or false, or maybe even a quick essay.
Remember that reading can be difficult. Track what you have done to show yourself that you can make the most difficult challenge look easy.

Share Your Experiences

Now that you’ve taken your first step towards creating a keystone habit. It’s time to get your friends and family involved. Reading doesn’t have to be something you do on your own. Tell people about what you are reading and what you would like to read in the future. Get others excited about the same things you are excited about. If you can’t convince your friends and family seek out peers that are like minded. There are book clubs and mastermind groups around the world. These groups are there to help each other. They will be there to help you. Just remember you are forming this habit for you, don’t let others bring you down. Everytime you read it should be something you want to read. Reading will change your life. Make sure you enjoy it and follow through with creating your new keystone habit. As a first step towards sharing your experiences share this post on your favorite social media.  If you really want to get involved sign up for our newsletter and updates.

Failure to Success, The Art of Learning From Mistakes.

Austin
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0
Failure to Success, The Art of Learning From Mistakes.

Failure As A learning experience 

You’re probably wondering how to go from failure to success, but that’s not the first thing to ask. Have you ever wondered why so many people are afraid of failure? It doesn’t make sense when you think about it. People learn the most when they make a mistake. It gives you a chance to see what does and doesn’t work. Failure is the greatest teacher you will ever have. The only time failure is truly a bad thing is when you decide not learn use it as a learning experience.

How To Deal With Failure In A Positive Way

Everyone will have their own way of dealing with failure. The thing to keep in mind is that failure happens everyday. Many people actually make a habit out of failing by trying more things. You may be the best at one thing but fail at another. If you aren’t failing at something then you probably aren’t trying enough new things or you’re limiting yourself. Many people would consider that failure. Consider all the positive things that come from failure.

Failure Is Not An Option

If you don’t let failures hold you back then it won’t be an option. Any time you fail at something it is a chance to grow and change directions. Maybe you are learning to garden and you accidently used the wrong approach to weed control and killed your plants or maybe your advertising campaign isn’t working. Whatever your perceived failure is use it as a chance to be better tomorrow. Don’t let failure become an option when it can be a learning lesson.

Take More Chances

If you aren’t failing regularly then you probably aren’t taking enough chance. Many people think of failure is a pillar of success because it teaches you so quickly. People don’t like to fail so when they do they learn quickly. Babies start out walking by falling. They don’t stop learning to walk because they fell. How many times have you tried something new and quit immediately after failing? If it was more than once you aren’t taking enough chances. Anytime you get a chance to learn take the opportunity. Any opportunity to learn is an opportunity well spent.

Start Over With A New Direction

Failure will give you immediate feedback about whatever you are doing. This gives you a chance to go back to the drawing board quickly. If you fail at something take a step back and look at what you did wrong. You are learning from your mistakes. Learning is how you overcome failure. When you take a step back you will have the chance to try something new or pivot in a new direction. Don’t let failure hold you back when you could be one try away from succeeding. New direction At first failure may seem like it is the worst thing that could happen. Over time you will realize that each time you have failed you have grown in some way. Look at failure for the positive things it does in your life. If you let failure get you down it will be harder to keep going towards your goals and dreams.

The Most Successful People Fail 

We’re lucky to live in a world where we can learn about someone on the internet. You’d be amazed at how autobiographies and biographies exist today. Every single famous person you know the name of has failed in some way. Many have failed thousands of times before getting recognized. Failure is an opportunity for growth and learning. You don’t have to fail yourself to learn, that may even be the best type of failure to learn from. Some of the most influential people of history have had to fail before eventually reaching their goals. A few examples are Thomas Edison, Michael Jordan, and Steve Jobs.

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison is credited for the invention of the light bulb. What many people don’t know is that at one point in time he was told he was “too stupid learn anything” by a teacher. In the process of inventing the lightbulb he failed at least 1,000 times before getting something that worked. When asked about his 1,000 failures he would reply “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The lightbulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” Thanks to those 1,000 steps you have lights in your house.Light bulbs

Michael Jordan

Many today know Michael Jordan for the successful line of shoes by NIKE, the championships while he played for the Chicago Bulls, and staring in Space Jam. Though he has become wildly successful and well known he was actually cut from his high school’s varsity basketball team. That failure pushed him to work harder. He knows that failure has created his success and it shows in this quote “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Steve Jobs

Credited for bringing Apple to the forefront of computers, phones and MP3 technology. Steve Jobs had a major failure that could have caused anyone to spiral into depression. He was let go from his own company. Recognizing that he had made a mistake he went on to buy Pixar and start another computer company NeXT. Though NeXT wasn’t as big a hit as Pixar the whole thing was a great lesson. After the success of Pixar Steve Jobs ended up back at the head of Apple. He showed that learning from your failures can bring you back better than ever.

Learn From Those Who Came Before

Learning from other people’s mistakes gives you a chance to understand what not to do before doing it. There are thousands of biographies and autobiographies out there that give you a look into the lives of others. It is amazing what you can learn from the people that came before you. If reading biographies and autobiographies isn’t your style, have you considered a mentor? Mentors are people that have already done something you want to do. Some mentors may be many steps ahead of you while others are only one. Mentors are there to help you grow and learn from their mistakes. They will also help when you make mistakes by pointing you in the right direction. Mentors will point you in the right direction

Don’t Get Discouraged

Failure is not something you should let bring you down. It is one of the best things that could happen to you. When you fail you know that you took a chance. From taking that chance you had an opportunity to learn. Learning is the most important part of growing as a person or growing a business. You don’t think that people because successful without failure do you? Remember the only thing that is holding you back is fear of failure. If you think about it failure is an opportunity to learn. Why on earth would you be scared of learning? Get out there and start failing more. But make sure that every time you fail you are learning and using that knowledge to grow yourself or your business. Life is to short to be fearful of failure. If you thought this was helpful subscribe to our newsletter and comment about a failure you’ve had that made you more successful. Don’t forget to share and like us on Facebook.
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