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Episode 428 – Lets read daily

• Welcome QFY friends
• Thank you for listening to my podcast
• Time flies by so fast
• We are already in May – 5 months into the year and I always like to check in with you
• How are you doing on your goals and resolutions – if you set any?
• If you didn’t – how is your year going otherwise?
• Are you happy with where you are ?
• Usually we aren’t
• We always wish we would be further ahead
• Maybe we started on something we have been wanting to do, but we haven’t made the progress we would like to see
• I have made tons of progress but there are a few small things that just haven’t started on
• I have taken big steps on big projects
• But I am not happy with the small things that are just as important to me and that I have neglected
• I keep talking about them but I haven’t done anything with them
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• That is why this week I want to do something slightly different
• For our 3 episodes this week – I want to put a plan together on 3 goals that are on my mind every day
• I consider them not just important to me but I strongly believe if we all do these 3 things regularly, ideally daily, our lives will improve
  • Yes – that is a bold claim
• That is why I want to share them with you
• Because at some point I did them all regularly and have seen the difference it made on my life
  • I was more mindful, more present, overall felt more emotionally stable and relaxed about life
• And I want to share them because now I don’t practice them regularly but want to get back to them
• so what I want to this week is this:
• I’d like to set the challenge for all of us to start all or at least 1-2 of these goals
• As I cover them – I will share with you why they are so impactful for our lives that they are non-negotiable in my opinion
• Every person should at least try to incorporate their version of these 3 activities in their life
• And I would not suggest all 3 in one week if a) I didn’t believe they are critical and b) if I believed they are something difficult that takes a lot of time
• We are all busy
• But I realized this weekend – the big projects are important
• They get us far – bring huge results
• But the little ones are just as important
• And I have neglected them over the last many months
• You have heard me mention them all because I don’t like that they are not part of my life
• They are
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1. Reading
2. Mediation / time for stillness
3. Daily intentions

• The third one I may have not yet covered a lot
• But its an important one and it takes seconds
• I started doing it last week and its powerful
• Intentions ensure the other 2 goals get done and whatever eles you set out to do that day
• But today I want to start with Reading
• Reading
• Let me just say it – I love reading
• I loved reading since I was able to read
• I would search the attic in my grandmothers house and find whatever books that seemed interesting and read them at night
• This is how I learned the story of the Wizard of Oz
• In fact – it wasn’t the Wizard of Oz
• It had a different title and the authors name was someone Russian
• But it was almost the exact same story
• In prep for this episode I became curious about this and searched on Google Germany for the book
• I learned that the author – Alexander Wolkov- basically rewrote the original story with a few modifications  and that it was distributed widely in the communist countries
• Dorothy’s name was Elli in my version and she lived in Kansas
• I still remember when I came to the US to find that my beloved childhood story was also very popular here but wasn’t exactly the same
• I don’t know how many times I read that book
• As a teenager I was an avid visitor to the library
• I was fascinated by Sherlock Holmes and I actually still like detective stories
• I have read all my life
• In college I had to curb my personal reading to focus on required reading
• But as soon as I was done with college – I read voraciously
• That was the internet age and suddenly I learned about so many good book that I didn’t know about before
• So it has been really saddening for me to not being able to read regularly over the last 1-2 years
• I finish random book here and there while on a flight or on vacation but that’s not enough
• There are so many books I want to read – both fiction and non fiction
• I check them out form the library and I turn them back in unread
• I am sad and I a frustrated that I am unable to find time to read
• Reading is essential for everyone, not just for children
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• Reading is the primary way we gain new knowledge
• You may not realize you reading just because you don’t have books piling up on your nightstand like I do
• But we all read online
  • We read emails, news, comments on social media, blog posts, recipes, and so much more
• Thanks to the internet – we all probably read more than we did before
• When I was growing up – Reading was considered more of a nerdy activity
• But now, we all have our heads hanging over our devices
• Most people probably read small bursts of information rather than entire books
• This is important to recognize in our quest to read more
• For example – instead of reading my book at night before falling asleep, I look through my IG account
  • Still reading – but not the reading I want to do
  • Its easy reading, there are pictures and small text, its interesting but again – its not what is most important to me
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• Whatever your reading goal might be –
  • Books may not be your thing
• But I would like to challenge you to use reading as a way to learn something new
• Every word we read informs us
  • About the weather, what our friends are up to our how many calories are in a Gram of fat
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• We don’t have to read  instructional manuals to learn something
• But I would like to challenge you to read both regularly and something longer than twitter comments
• As a fan of book – I will always defend them
• But I also believe that our short attention spans need to be trained to read something longer than just a paragraph
• The interaction with words that form an idea that lasts 350 pages helps train our patience and challenge our brains
• And I believe, it relaxes us
• I don’t have to explain how much I love crawling into the corner of couch with a blanket and a cup of tea and get lost in a book
• The reality of the situation is that I don’t have hours like that available to me anymore
• So my proposal – to get reading back into my day – will involve only short periods of time
• However – my suggestion is to pick a book or a magazine with long-form content
• Something you can see through from beginning to end
• I feel a lot of the knowledge I Google I forget so quickly
• Books stay in my memory because I was art of the journey the book took me on for many days
• So again
• ask yourself –
• what do you really want to learn?
• You might be googleing recipes because maybe want to change your overall diet
• But ask yourself – how serious are you – and if it I important – it might be worth investing into a book to learn about a specific diet or approach to eating
• If you are reading only the news daily, ask yourself- what else interests you?
  • Do you like to understand certain politics or history about a country in more detail
  • Maybe you want to pick up a biography about a historical figure
• Ask yourself
• Whats a problem you would like to solve in your life?
  • Are you struggling with prioritizing your time
  • There are tons of books about this topic
• There are also lots of articles online, but consider this:
• People that write books are often more qualified to write them than the people who write online articles
• I give you lots of content on many different topics that I am not an expert in
• That may be enough for you on most topics
• We don’t need the details on everything
• But on those things that really interest you – you may want to dive deeper

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• Some of the most Successful people are voracious readers
• Reading conveys knowledge and knowledge is power
• It challenges the brain and keeps us young
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• After we are done with college, we often end our formal learning
• We google what we need but we often don’t dive deep into subjects to really learn them
• Books can help with that
• Even novels are a great way to learn
• Well written fiction teaches us about the use of language and human emotions which in turn enriches our vocabulary, and helps increase our empathy with our fellow human
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• Some novels contain historical facts that are based on real events
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• I love good novels and I have reviewed several on this podcast
• Biographies are a wonderful way to learn about the legacy of other people
• Authors do a lot of work researching people and giving us n insight about their life
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• So how can we read more?
  • How can I find the time to read?
  • How can I start reading daily when I haven’t been able to do it for months?
• The answer of course – is nothing magical
• I simply have to read every day
• We do what we always do
  • We set a goal
  • We make a plan
  • We allocate the time when we execute the plan
  • We move things if necessary to free up that time
  • And then we do it
• My best time to read is bedtime
• I have tried to read in the morning but I cant be consistent
• Reading in the morning is not my favorite thing to do
• In the morning I am energized and reading calms me
• So its best for the evening
• Pick the time that works best for you and make it consistent
  • No devices in sight
  • No other commitments
  • Just you and your book
• Then pick an achievable goal
• For me – at the moment – it’s as low as 2 pages per day
• I can always increase
• And I know I will
• Once I am into a book is have a hard time putting it down
• I just need to get back into my routine and replace IG with my book
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• Imagine how many books you can read if you read just 2 or 3 or 10 pages a day?
• So I’d say
• Lets get started
• My goal is to read carefully chosen content that satisfies me and enriches my life
• And I want to motivate you to do the same

• To get you started – I am going to add a list of books that have been on my radar for a while into the show notes
• These are books from a variety of genres that many people that I admire have recommended and that I know will enrich my life
• You can click on the title of the book and it will take you to the Goodreads website where you can read more about the book
• I use Goodreads by the way to keep track of all my reading
• Feel free to connect with me there

Lets do it my friends

Lets read more and enrich our lives with knowledge, balance and growth

Much love