Dear amazing friend,
I am about to share with you one of the luckiest things that happened in my life. My hope is that it will make you lucky too.
I admit, it’s not the luckiest things – those honours go to having the parents I do and meeting my future wife, when I was only 15 years old.
The event I am sharing will seem trivial to you. It is not. It changed the trajectory of my life.
This lucky event was, reading this book.
Reading The 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey changed me.
I can’t remember where I bought it. Probably the airport bookshop.
I can’t remember why I read it. I needed to read something on the plane I guess.
I can’t even remember reading it. I do remember the complimentary salted nuts (thanks Jetstar!).
It was not only the knowledge and wisdom in this book that changed my life. It’s what happened after. It put me on a journey of personal development.
I learnt that I can take full ownership of my personal development. It can be intentional. It doesn’t have to be left to chance.
So, I started reading every non-fiction book that caught my attention.
This led me to another life changing learning.
For every problem that I ever have, someone has written a book about it.
If I wanted to be ridiculously happy, there are books about it. (One of them is now mine – Do Happy)
If I wanted to make more money, there are books about it.
If I wanted to improve my marriage, there are books about it.
If I wanted to get rid of neck pain, there are books about it.
If I wanted to reverse diabetes through lifestyle medicine, there are books about it.
If I wanted to learn about how to learn, there are books about it.
There is something about sitting with a book, turning the pages, and learning on your own accord. No-one told you to do so. No-one is checking.
You are a certain person when you sit down to read a book.
By the time you have finish a book, you become a different person.
- The 4 hour workweek by Tim Ferris changed how I view the standard 9-5.
- Atomic Habits by James Clear and Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, taught me how to get stuff done (and why I sometimes I don’t).
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Condo made me clean my room (hopefully for good).
Reading non fiction is the closest thing to reproducible magic.
This is why it saddens me that people don’t read much anymore. There are a lot of reasons for this. I don’t care for any of them 🙂
If you read a lot, you already know that there is magic between the covers.
If you love reading but you have lost touch, this is your kick up the butt to get back in the game.
If you don’t like reading and don’t see it’s value, do this. Write down the biggest problem you have in your life. Read 3 books on it. Thank me later.
The recipe for solving any problem you have in your life is reading.
The secret ingredient?
Action.
If you don’t do anything with what you learn, nothing will change.
If you put your learnings into action, everything will change.
If you LOVED READING this, SHARE it with someone you care about (and tell them to SUBSCRIBE).
Much love to you and of course, myself.
Dr G
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P.S What’s on your reading list this year? CONTACT me below and let me know.
P.P.S I love books because they changed my life.
I dreamt that one day I could write a book that changed someone else’s. I can’t know whether it will change anyone’s life, but I did write the book. Check it out – Do Happy. Don’t buy it yet. I am having some issues with Amazon’s pricing. If you want a copy, CONTACT me below. I will put you on ‘the list’. I say that to sound fancy. It’s just a list of names on a google sheet called “book requests”.
I should call it, “Hot dang, people actually want the book!”.
Ok, I changed the name.
