Success Advice
I Hadn’t Read A Book Since High School. Here’s Why You Should Read Daily
My hyper/crazy mind told me to stop reading after high school.
I was convinced that there had to be a more productive way to learn other than reading. I traded reading for five-minute videos on YouTube. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but it wasn’t.
Then one day, my mom got an iPad. I always thought tablets were stupid. Again, I was wrong. I downloaded a book onto the Kindle App and I became hooked. I then rang my friend.
At the time, I thought I wanted to be the next Wolf Of Wall Street. Oh god some of my false career dreams are hilarious upon reflection!
Anyway, I asked my friend how to become a “Trader.” He told me to read, so I did. He gave me a list of books to read and many of them had the words “Wall Street” in them. I read each book and suddenly I was hooked on reading for the first time in my life.
I hadn’t read a book since high school and I was finally seeing what I was missing out on. Don’t let school make you believe that learning and reading are boring.
So here’s why you should read daily.
Reason One: You’ll learn more
Short bites of content on the Internet won’t help you learn complex tasks. Short content has made us impatient and given us all a university degree in how to live with ADD. With books, you get to go deep on a topic. The words on the page affect you in a different way.
A good book consumes you and takes over your life until you finish it. Books are very convincing because they require a time commitment.
“When something is easily accessible and requires no burden or significant entry cost, we take it for granted”
Books force you to make a decision. You’re required to sit down and read for several hours – and sometimes days – before you can complete the book.
Through this journey, you can truly master a topic. I also find that my comprehension rate of a book is far greater than any other medium. That’s why reading is a must for everyone who wants to grow as a person and learn.
Reason Two: Quotes to live your life by
The addictive part of reading (especially on a Kindle) is that you can highlight quotes. If there’s a line you love, you can highlight it and then find it again easily later.
After a while, you start to build up a library of quotes that you can live your life by. Whenever you need a quick reminder of something you learned from a book, you can find a quote and re-read it.
We underestimate the power of simple tools like quotes.
“Quotes can interrupt a pattern our mind might be running and give us truth right when we need it”
Reason Three: You’ll get better at writing
Being a blogger, I’m always looking to write better. Through daily reading, I’m learning new ways to write. Books have shown me different styles of writing, how to talk in different voices and me different sentence structures.
I recently compared my writing from a few years back and I’ve noticed it’s evolved tenfold. I now know how to spell so many more words and I’ve become better at expressing myself.
Reason Four: You’ll enhance your ability to evoke emotions in others
Stories of struggle have helped me discover my emotional side. Through reading, we can consume highly emotional stories.
These stories make us feel something and can move us to take action. Once we have read many books that explore lots of different emotions, we can use the same tactics to evoke emotions in others.
Being able to make people feel something is a very powerful skill to have. We can use this skill to argue a point, sell our business and attract a romantic partner. Emotions are the driving force of life. Once you know how to use them, you can achieve new heights.
Reason Five: You’ll be taken away from your current reality
Since I rediscovered reading, I decided to see what all the hype was about and started reading Harry Potter. I never knew what the fuss was about until I got into it. At the time, I was recovering from a broken heart and the book took me into another world.
The book took me away from my problems and gave me time to heal. I got to see the struggles that Harry faced and how he dealt with them. Strangely enough, the struggles of this wizard were similar to my own. He faced evil enemies and so did I.
When Harry met Dumbledore in the first book, he saw the power of having a mentor. Seeing mentorship through the eyes of Harry Potter reinvigorated my thirst for coaching and mentorship. Not only did I want to be a mentor, but I also became open to being mentored again.
All of this came from a fantasy book about a wizard with no parents. Reading has magical powers.
Reason Six: You’ll Learn New Words
Reading takes you away from the usual words you would use and introduces you to new words. On the Kindle App, I love coming across new words and then highlighting them to find out what they mean. That’s how I discovered the word discombobulated again.
I had heard the word once in grade four when my teacher Mr. Dover (often nicknamed Ben Dover) used it. Mr. Dover used the word after we made a cardboard tractor for an upcoming play and described his current state as discombobulated.
If it weren’t for reading books, I wouldn’t have rediscovered old words and learned new words.
Reason Seven: You’ll speak better
The words you use in a conversation come from your memory bank also known as your vocabulary. By reading, I’ve found that you subconsciously start speaking better. All of a sudden your brain has better references on how to express your thoughts and feelings.
Communication is key in life and reading will help you be better at it.
“If you sound like a waffling imbecile, then it’s partly because you may not have discovered the habit of reading”
Reason Eight: Go back in time
I’m currently reading a book about the psychology of tennis. It was written before the modern concepts of psychology were known. The great thing about reading books is that you get to travel back in time.
This author of this book discovered the science of peak performance through experience. He did this before all the new science on peak performance became widespread. Through reading, I got to understand peak performance in its very early stages, before all the hype.
History can tell us a lot about ourselves and books are full of wisdom from the past.
Time to take action: Here’s how to begin
Ok cool, so you’ve seen all the reasons you should read. Now it’s time to take action. The task of reading can be daunting though. I’ve found it’s best to read for fifteen minutes a day, to begin with.
You could also try reading a book that has lots of short chapters. Then, all you need to do is commit to reading one chapter a day. There’s no way you can fail with such a small goal.
The nice thing is that once you start reading for fifteen minutes a day, you will become addicted and naturally want to read more. From here, you’ll get lost in the world of reading and gain all the benefits mentioned above. Best of luck and happy reading!
If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net
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How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements
Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.
Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.
There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.
Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.
Embed the strength of AI and ML.
AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.
According to CyberGhost (CG) bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.
ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses.
In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.
Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities
Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased.
Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information.
Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place.
In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.
Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development
You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.
You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.
Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.
Developing key skills to achieve goals
Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.
Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.
Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.
Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.
Development/Coding Knowledge
Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.
Hacking proof framework
There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.
Communication Abilities/Soft Skills
Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:
Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.
Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.
Agile Implementations
It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.
- Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds.
- Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
- Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
- Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them.
- Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.
- Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
- Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
- Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.
Conclusion
There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.
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