Great minds with a passion for sharing knowledge can be traced back to prehistoric times, beginning with cave drawings as the earliest form of communication these simple images depicted hunting scenes, rituals, and daily life, allowing communities to deliver important information and cultural stories. As societies evolved, spoken customs emerged, enabling knowledge to be shared through storytelling such as parables in order to teach about morals and spiritual lessons. Around 3,500 BC knowledge became more permanent with the arrival of writing systems such as the cuneiform, where wedge-shaped marks were pressed into clay tablets to represent words and concepts; this allowed for the recording of laws, history, and science. By the 15th century the invention of the printing press revolutionized the sharing of knowledge by making books accessible to a broader audience and facilitating literacy. And now in this digital age the internet has further transformed how we share knowledge, breaking down geographical barriers and enabling instantaneous access to vast amounts of information, thus continuing the ancient human tradition of learning from one another.
Knowledge is priceless, and people with the most amazing life experiences have taken the time to write down their stories so we can learn from them. It doesn’t matter what you crave, if your a serious seeker of knowledge it’s available.
With a treasure of knowledge at our disposal, much of it having the ability to change our future, how many books have we read? Jim Rohn in his book The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle writes, “There is very little difference between someone who cannot read and someone who will not read. The result of either is ignorance. Jim goes on to say that a little bit of reading each day will result in a wealth of valuable information in a very short period of time. But if we fail to set aside time, if we fail to pick up the book, if we fail to exercise the discipline, then ignorance will quickly move in to fill the void.
We all know that we should probably read much more than we do, but did you know that the average CEO reads 60 books per year, that’s 5 books a month. I’m sure they may have different opportunities to read while sitting in airports, taking long flights, or being chauffeured around instead of navigating through traffic, but the point is these are people at the top of the game, how do you think they got there, or are able to stay there? They obviously take advantage of opportunities to read and value the personal development that reading offers.
My personal strategy resembles Jim’s message about reading a little everyday. I make it a point to read for 10-15 minutes every morning, that typically results in about 12 pages because I like to read slow to completely absorb what I’m reading, to me reading is not a race, if it were I would lose. My goal is not to try and get a book done as fast as possible, my goal for reading a book is to learn about the particular subject I chose the book for. I’m also around a page per minute because I like to highlight certain key points as I read them, and I even like to write in the margins at times, this allows me to quickly find reference areas in my book should I need them in the future. Sometimes I’ll even immediately reread a book by just running through the highlighted areas, I find this really helps me embed the core messages within the book and would highly recommend giving this a try. But can you believe by just reading 12 pages a day it adds up to (18) 243 page books per year. Can you imagine the knowledge you can gain by reading 18 books a year? The problem is that as easy as it is to read for 10-15 minutes per day, it’s also just as easy not to read for 10-15 minutes per day, to read for 10-15 minutes per day takes discipline, it takes commitment, you have to make the time and make reading a priority for your personal growth, and although we use the term personal growth, the knowledge you’ll gain will circulate to all those around you. Who knows, you may even change the world. Read each and every day, grow each and every day, or you will find yourself staying the same as time slips through your hands.
Obviously by now you can imagine I’ve read a countless number of books over the years, some of which I’ve expected much turned out to be disappointing, while others that I wasn’t sure what to expect, have blown me away, such as Matthew Walkers book named Why We Sleep. Did you know that some species of birds sleep in a row, and as all the birds in the center of the row have their brains completely shut down sleeping, the bird on each end of the row only shuts down half their brain and keeps the other half awake to monitor for predictors, so if they are the bird on the left side of the row, they can shut down the right side of their brain and keep their left side awake, with their left eye open, and the bird on the right side of the row does the complete opposite keeping their right eye open and alert, then half way through their sleep cycle these two end birds rotate 180 degrees and shut down the opposite side of their brains. The book was fascinating and the knowledge that Matthew shared was from him dedicating decades of his life to scientifically research sleep and it’s affects on us. How could I possibly gain that knowledge, Matthew is a world-renowned neuroscientist and sleep expert. Without Matthew and others like him sharing their experience I would never be able to fully understand the circadian rhythm and how dangerous the lack of sleep can be for us, or what really happens during REM and how sleep affects our immune system. The ability for us to learn through others who have spent their life mastering a subject cannot be taken for granted and must be appreciated for what it is, we must be grateful for this ability for it is truly a gift. Those who wish for a better life and do not take advantage of this opportunity neglect this gift. My wish for you and all those who care is to Never Stop learning!
While Life Long Learning is fantastic any way you can get it, through podcast’s, audio books, classes, etc, I still cherish the experience of reading a book and having it available on my shelf for easy reference, with my highlights and margin notes I like making it my own, it becomes special.
If your just getting stared on a reading journey, or just looking for suggestions I’ve created a list of books below that I felt were special. If you would like to recommend a book that you’ve read please add it to the forum, as valuable as reading the words from those who has mastered a subject, I’ve found recommendations for books from like minded people can be just as helpful. I truly believe that people are our greatest resource.
