12 Books A Year - "How I Read" (Part 1/4) - 163

The Option Genius Podcast: Options Trading For Income and Growth

Hey there, today I want to be talking about something that I call how I get better every year. Now, when I think about getting better, that could be in any aspect, it could be trading, it could be life, it could be in any part of your life. And what I want to talk about can be totally customized to you. So you can choose what you want to get better in. But it does take a little bit of work.

Now, whenever I talk about this with people, or I share this with anybody I mean, they get a lot of benefits out of it, the people who have tried it have really told me that they loved it, they love doing it, and is very different from anything else I've ever seen. I've never seen anybody do it quite like this before. And now I believe that we don't stand still, you're either getting better, or you're getting worse, you're getting faster, or you're getting slower. You can't just be "Oh, I'm the same as I was last year", it doesn't work that way.

You're either getting smarter, or you're getting left behind. Because everything, the whole world, everything moves way too fast. There's many, too many changes, there's too many people competing, there's too much noise, there's so much out there that you have to get better, and if you don't, you get left behind. Now, in many things, that's not a bad thing. But when you're in life, and you want to get ahead, then you want to keep getting better. And it's actually fun to do as well. Right?

I get better by learning by education by reading. And so I'm going to be talking about how I read and it's not the way most people read. And it's definitely not the most regular books that you've heard of. It's a completely different way. I've never heard of anybody talk about it like this. And so I think it's going to be very helpful. And like I said, totally customizable to you based on whatever you want to accomplish. So that's the cool part about it. Now, I read a lot, the voracious reader. And so whenever I read, I'm always reading to get through the book, because I want to finish it because on my stack, you know how my desk I have a stack of other books that I'm ready and excited to read. Because I just love to read, there's certain topics that I like to read a lot.

And so every new book that comes out, I'll get it and I'll read it and I like the paper books, you know, printed books, I don't like the ebooks that much. But I'll read those too. I have a bunch of those too that are still stacked up. But in my house, for example, my wife keeps getting upset because I keep getting more and more and more books and we don't have plates anymore. We don't have space to put these all these books. I got bookshelves on top of bookshelf, bookshelves and they're they're still full my nightstand on my table is like full of books.

She even, my poor wife, she even got me a bookshelf for the bedroom. So that I could have that as well. But those are awful, too. And they're falling off and they're on the floor. And it's just piling up. So that's just the way I am. But what I realized is that I was reading and reading reading, but I wasn't learning. That's the sad part though. I was just reading to read. And so I had no knowledge, but I didn't have any implementation. And so I learned this because you know, my wife and I, we sometimes were in bed or night you're talking, she has a business. She has her own business, and I have a business so we're talking and she was explaining a particular problem that she had. So I was like, Oh, wow, that's, you know, and stuff. But you know, I'm reading this book, and it said, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And she goes, oh, wow, that makes a lot of sense. Okay, I'm gonna try that. So then she goes, and she comes back like a week later. And she goes, Hey, you know, I tried that thing. And it worked really well. Thank you. You know, problem solved is wonderful. I'm like, Oh, that's great. You know, and then we move on.

About six months later, we're in bed. And now I'm talking about a problem. And she goes to me, Oh, well, you know what you could do? You could do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, Oh, wow, that's such a great idea. Oh, my god, that's amazing that you're so smart. And she goes, Really? You don't remember? I'm like, remember what she does? That's the exact same thing you told me to do six months ago. And I'm like, really? And she's like, Yeah, so you read in a book, you told me to do it. I did it. And it worked. And now I'm telling you to do it. And I was like, oh, and so I realized that I'm reading all this stuff. I'm reading all these books upon books upon books. And I'm not learning is coming in one year is coming out the other. Not only that, but I'm spending a lot of time reading. And normally I will read four or five books at a time. At a time, I'll have four or five books that I'm reading, because, you know, whatever fancies my mood at the time is what I'll read, I'll pick it up. And I'll be in the middle of four or five books at a time. And I mean, if I get to do one book, I can do it and maybe within a couple of days. But when I want to learn about a particular topic, I like to go deep in a topic, but when you buy three or four books about the topic, you will realize that they're almost all the same. There's very little new stuff in the books that come out nowadays.

You know, there's maybe one or two that are like the definitive book about it that cover everything. And then everybody else, all the books that come out afterwards are just reiterations of that book. Like, for example, one time, I wanted to learn about habits, I have maybe six or seven books on habits. And guess they all say the same things. They all use the same studies, they all talk about the same problems that people have, the same examples.

It's a lot of it is almost like, if you take the title off, you wouldn't be able to tell which book is which, because they're almost they're all the same. And so I realize that I'm buying book after book after book on certain topics. And I'm just reading the same thing over and over and over again. So like, Yeah, this is not working either. This is just wasting time. I mean, repetition does help. But still, I'm not getting anything closer to my goal. And so I decided to do something different. And I decided that I'm going to make a list of all the things that I want to work on, on me.

Now, I have two sets of lists, I have one for business, because I want to improve my business. And then I have another set for me personally, all the things that I want to improve on. And so what I did was made a list that added up, and I picked like maybe eight or 12 things. Okay. And then I went and I found the definitive book, on that particular topic. Now, some topics, I picked three or four books because we come at it from a different angle. And it's a very big topic, like productivity, productivity is a big one for me, discipline, getting stuff done, working on the stuff that's important, I getting sidetracked. That's important to me. And so I have three or four different books that I identified that are really good about that particular topic.

And so what I've done is I call it the 12 books a year. So I have set aside and I've decided that I'm going to read one book, every month, about my personal to make me better make me as a better person be more successful in all the different areas of my life. So I'm going to read one book per month. Now, obviously, like I said before, only takes me two or three days to read one book. So I'm not going to read all of them together, I'm going to read one, it might take me two days, three days, four days to read this book, the rest of the month, I am going to implement what I learned in the book, I'm going to go back, I'm going to take notes, I'm going to apply it to different situations in my life, I'm going to make examples or exercises or take the exercises actually do them. Because a lot of books, they have exercises where the author tells you do this, this, this this, and I don't do those. Really, you know, I might think about it for like 30 seconds and then move on, because I'm rushing to finish the book. So I'm gonna go back. And I go through the entire book. And I go through all the exercises, and I actually do the work I actually do with ask you to do. And I go further and I spend time thinking about it. I spend time thinking about okay, what did this chapter say? How can I implement this in my life? How does this make any sense? Does it make sense for me, and I found that there are certain books that are just really, really good. And so I do them every year. So in January, I have one book, and then February I'll do another March is another and I'll work through the book.

Now, if that particular topic or that particular issue is really, really important to me, and I'm not finished implementing the book, then I can just keep working on the book, I don't go to book number two, you know, I don't go to the next month's book, I keep working because I don't want to break my momentum. And so I will continue keep working on it. And I've seen myself, the gains are incredible. Some people tell me Oh, my God, how did you accomplish so much. I just, you know, buckled down. And I did this, some of the times my family tells me what's going on, you're different. You've changed. And I'll explain that you know how that works. But it's really extraordinary, how amazing this is. How this one simple concept.And it's cheaper, because you don't have to buy about a book, it's easier because all the information is right there, you just have to do the work. And doesn't it takes less time. Because you're only reading one book, and then you're implementing, and the success you get the results you get are mind-blowing.

And so what I want to do is I want to share all the 12 books that I read every year most years, and I will share them with you. And now I don't have I don't want to do it all in one video because they're going to be too many. I want to go through each book and tell you why I like it. And so I'm going to break this up into a series. And so we have this video, which is number one, right? And then I'll take the first four books, that'll be part two, then part three and part four, and we'll break it down. Now the cool thing about this is that the books are interchangeable. So one year, I might not need that particular topic that that book talks about, and so I can swap it out for another book, or another topic. Right?

That's the cool part. It's up To you, you can spend as much time on a topic or a little time on a topic. And if you don't want it, then you just take that book out, and you put it in something else in its place. Because of course, there's always stuff we can work on, there's always stuff we can get better at. And these books have so much content in them, that you do them. And you're probably not going to finish the whole book in a month, right? And so you might feel okay, I want to move on. But then when you come back to it, you come back to it 12 months later, and you are a completely completely different person. Now you have different problems. Now you have a different point of view, you have different understandings. And so when you read the book, again, a lot of stuff, you won't remember some of it, you will, but a lot you won't, but you did, you take deeper meaning out of it, you'll understand it from a different point of view. And so the problems that you have, you be like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna apply this, even though you've already read the book. And if you've done it several years in a row, you have probably read the book several times.

Right. And so this is a, like I said, it's a great process, I want to go through it with you, it's really not that hard. But I want to in the in the following episode, versions or series, I want to talk about the different books that I use, and the different topics that are important to me. And they're really important to a lot of other people, you know, productivity, happiness, keeping the end in mind, which is like, you know, how do we approach life? How do we live life on a day to day basis, we don't get caught up in the day to day things, you know, energy, nutrition, health, that one is a big one, what else we got, we have, I don't have any money books in here, you know, like, oh, how to make more money, or how to do marketing, or those are all on my other list of business type books, right? Financial, Business, Trading, all of that stuff would be on a separate list. Now, I used to do both at the same time. So I used to have two books a month, one for my personal one for my business. But I realized that when you work on the personal, the business stuff, and the trading stuff, all that gets better automatically. And I spend a lot of time on that stuff anyway. And so that stuff gets better anyway.

So I really need to focus more time on myself, because, I mean, there's only one me, right, I only get one me only get one life. So I want to make it as successful and as fulfilling as possible. And so I have books on there on happiness, books on getting things done. But really finding out what things really need to be done. There's a book on spirituality that I've read, or that have included, I'm going to share that one with you is really good. It's not about any one particular religion, but it's just basically on spirituality, that one's a good one. So I'm going to give you the list, we're gonna go through each one, I'll tell you what it does, why it's important. And these are books that I recommend to everybody. Like, as somebody who reads and has read 1000s and 1000s, and 1000s of books, literally, you know, I can tell you right off the bat if something is good or not.

And there are many books that are really, really good, but they didn't make the cut, you know, so these are the ones that are, you know, hand-chosen by me to tackle certain topics, most of them are all, you know, mega mega bestsellers. So you probably have most of these already, if you like to buy books, if not, you've probably heard of most of them. Some of them you've probably never heard of, if you're not really familiar with that topic, but all of them are exceptional. And so I can't wait to get into this and share them with you. And hope you have a great year too, you know, and you can just get better, just get better and better better. Just follow the process.

Again, it's nothing, it's easy. It's, you know, pick one topic that you want to work on, per month, find one book that teaches you how to work on that topic, and then just do the work for a month. And it's only a month it's not, it's not that long, you know, do it forever, right. And then at the end of the month, then you pick another book and you go in a different direction, you do something else. And if you want to do work more on it, because you're excited, you stay on that book, and you keep going, and then you cycle back. So the next year, you'll go back to the first book, you read it again, you'll be like, Oh man, I can implement this, this, this, this, this, and you learn more and you implement more.

And sometimes you end up oh man, I forgot that I used to do this. And you stop implementing and then you forget and then you read the book and you're like, Oh, I got to do that again. Yeah, that was really important. Okay, okay, I'll do it again. So you start doing again, and you just, you just continue to stair step, get better and better, better, better. And it's not about, you know, making huge major goals or muj major improvements. You can make small improvements. And that's actually one of the books that we'll be talking about eye opening really topics. So yeah, this is part one. Go ahead and queue up part two. Go ahead, go through that one. And I'll go through the the first four books, and then we'll do the rest as we go along. But yeah, this is gonna be really helpful. Thanks. All right. Bye.