Stop Reading So Much!

At a time when sharing your most recent favorite read with others is as easy as pressing a button and sending it to their mobile device, books are being read at a feverish rate, especially among the Millennial generation (ahem… yours truly…). Whether your preferred poison is audiobooks, Kindle readers, or good old fashioned printed copies, the proliferation of enjoying a good page turner leads to an exciting exchange and growth of ideas and stories.

But let’s take a step back. In a recent dose of DarrenDaily, author and mentor Darren Hardy posed a compelling argument: The fact that you’re feverishly reading one book after another doesn’t mean you’re gaining anything from them! While we consume books for entertainment, we also consume them as a source of inspiration, advice, and knowledge. While there are numerous books available on the topics of self-improvement, spiritual growth, leadership, and teamwork (to name just a few), if you are picking up another one as soon as you’ve finished one, what are you actually applying from any of them?

The goal of reading shouldn’t be content consumption, but rather growth from the content you’re reading. You’ve invested a good amount of time reading about the topic. But that time turns out to be entirely wasted if you simply close the app, or put down the book and move right along to the next. Consider this: Rather than consuming every book on a topic that you can find, if you were to consume less but DO more, PRACTICE more, and IMPROVE more, then ultimately, you would ACHIEVE more – right?

As we enter a new year and are continuously surrounded by the next shiny idea, and the accompanying book to go with it, I encourage you to consume LESS in the new year. Take a look back at all the knowledge you’ve already accumulated. What have you done with it? I, along with Darren Hardy, will stick my neck out and venture to claim the old saying, “Knowledge is power” is for the birds. Mere knowledge isn’t power. It’s the potential for power. What you do with that knowledge is power. You don’t succeed by simply learning about the best, most efficient way to operate a business. You find success in applying that knowledge to your specific business, measuring your results, adjusting your sails, and reapplying.

Happy New Year to all! Here’s to a year of consuming less. And doing much, much more.

Kathryn Adams
Practice Building Consultant
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (800) 846-1555
www.aaepa.com