Stop Reading and Forgetting. Do These 3 Things Instead.

I notice that many leaders feel they are falling short on their book reading habit.

While I read and recommend reading, I do not encourage mindless reading — especially if you have ambitious personal and professional goals.

Here are some common mistakes and practical solutions to get more out of the books you read.

Firstly, Many people feel compelled to read books just because someone famous recommended it on a podcast OR because a friend said “You got to read it. It’s a great book.”

This approach is patently wrong. It only leads you to buy books you never finish reading and you start to feel bad about not what you are “expected to be doing”.

The other thing to note here is that no book resonates with everyone.

Secondly, people try to form an habit of reading X number of books. This is caused by a misconception made popular by book-vending apps, authors, and publishers that “All successful CEOs read at least 52 books a year”. That’s not true.

What’s inherent in that assertive manipulation is that if you do not read as many books as others do — you can’t be successful.

To be sure, I checked with many successful C-level leaders in different industries and found three things

• They do not count the books they read (their goal is not the number)
• They do not complete every book they read (they skim through to pick up what’s useful)
• They do not read every book they have (they have many unread books on their shelves like all of us! Many people are naturally better at “Shelf-development” than “Self-development” :-) )

Now the questions are -

• Why do they read?
• What do they read?
• What habit can YOU model?

The obvious answers are — to follow a reading routine, to wind down, to take the mind off problems for a while, etc. There are also several other not-so-obvious answers.

Here are three action items I would suggest that you consider

• Goal-Oriented-Reading Focus your reading to something that can help you find an answer to a pressing problem you are facing. I call this Goal-Oriented-Reading. This makes your reading more engaging, fulfilling, and rewarding. I would often stop reading a book after I got what I was looking for — on a random page in Chapter 8 — as I was browsing through. Don’t feel guilty for not reading a book cover to cover. Set clear professional goals and align your reading with your goals. Don’t worry about the money you spend on books — you also have a few old phones that you do not use anymore. You can at least donate those books! Align your reading with your goals, not the recommendation of others(whose values & goals might not be the same as yours).
• Choose Action over Acceleration Just because a speed reading guru can read a book a day, it doesn’t mean that you need to do the same. What’s the point of speed reading, if you have no tangible results to show? After reading each book, write down 3 to 5 actions you are planning to take — and immediately add that to your To-Do list. If you do not act on what you read, it is as if you have not read at all. You are going to forget most of it, anyway! Have you ever met someone who reads a lot, but has no apparent increase in practical knowledge? That’s probably because they go after the count, volume and speed, instead of goal-oriented reading and putting ideas into immediate action. As the saying goes “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory”
• Great Minds Discuss Ideas One of the best lessons I learned from my father is a quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people” Choose to be a great mind. Masterminds with like-minded people, are the most overlooked platform that helps you to accumulate massive knowledge and accelerate your professional development. Often, we overestimate our ability to achieve our goals ourselves. We speed up our progress when we get help early and learn from people approaching the same goal with higher levels of enthusiasm. We can progress faster when we tune into the community of people on the same journey. When you join a Mastermind, do so with a give-and-take approach: Bring up problems you are facing, share the ideas you have for others, and be open to inputs. You will achieve the most in the least time. You will get ideas, goal-oriented reading recommendations, and accountability for taking action. During the monthly Leadership Mastermind sessions I facilitate, I ask members to bring up their biggest challenges to get the brightest ideas — often from the life experiences of the mastermind members — and often from best-of-class books. Members also share insights from ideas they implemented, results they found, and enticing others to implement the same. That way, you get a lot more than reading a whole book (or 52 books) — all by yourself.

Next time you hear someone brag about the number of books they have read each week, ask them -

1. What problems were you facing?
2. What ideas did you get?
3. What have you implemented?
4. What results did you see?

Stop counting the books you read, make the books you read, count!

Often, what you need is not more information, what you need is more implementation.

Stop counting the books you read, make the books you read, count! Often, what you need is not more information, what you need is more implementation.

Call To Action

Don’t allow your to follow the crowd feeling the compulsion to read everything others recommend. Use the 3 tips above to create your own goal-achieving systems and process to make your reading a means towards an end — and not an end in itself.

About the Author: Manoj Vasudevan is an internationally renowned Next Level Leadership Readiness expert, management consultant, and the World Champion of Public Speaking. He helps executives and entrepreneurs to break through to the Next Level in career, business, and life. Manoj is known for his expertise in simplifying complex topics into practical strategies. He is the CEO of Thought Expressions and holds an MBA from Imperial College, London. His books include the international bestseller Mastering Leadership The Mousetrap Way. and How to become the World Champion of Public Speaking. He speaks at international conferences, multinational companies, universities, and around the world. As a coach, Manoj has a proven track record in personal transformation and breakthroughs. CEOs, Senior Executives, UN Diplomats, Celebrities & Professionals from over 50 nationalities have benefited from Manoj’s coaching. To contact the author’s team, click here.