In this video I discuss:
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Every week I do a video blog (of VLOG). This week I talked about my reread list.
When I started this, I was very scared of putting myself on video, so I got the courage and put myself in the arena, killing a lot of bad self talk.This gives me the chance to work on my communication skills, start a new medium, and experiment!
Once a week, after I have thought about them, I will give them a day here on the blog.
These aren’t just promotion posts (although they are, please watch and share 
) I want to take the time to break them down and try to clarify what I want to communicate and the tactical things I learned through doing.
If you enjoyed the video, and if you want to get on the ride, please,subscribe to the YouTube channel, and join the Facebook page where they post every Sunday night.
It isn’t enough to read books. You have to spend your time reading the books that matter. A Reread list ensures your library is full of books that do.
If you enjoyed the video, and if you want to get on the ride, please, subscribe to the YouTube Channel, and join the Facebook page where they post every Sunday night.
When I get nervous, usually there is a question lurking in me that I desperately want answered, but I am too scared to think about. So, most of my life I didn’t ask them. Internally I thought it better to live with the shame of not standing up then deal with the “problems” that come with asking.
I recognize that I missed out on a lot of opportunities because of that fear.
So, I start the year trying to understand questions. I recognize there is an art here. There are good and bad questions. There are also good and bad environments, recipients, and people who ask. This month I want to explore these things.
At the end of last year I wrote a post that resulted in me picking 5 themes for 2016. They are the guiding light(strategic) for my ideas. Each month on this blog, I break things down into the practical (tactical). This year I want to tie both together, so each month, I have to write the reason they connect.
The art of questions connect to communication as the gate to higher level discussion. As much as we communicate through our words and bodies, it doesn’t mean much if there is no connection to the other side. Questions are that bridge that allows us to know what the other person is thinking, and what it means to the context of our existence.
A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger – I chose this because it does a deep dive in the ideas of questions. Its even in the title. What I got the first time reading this is how set up we are when it comes to not asking questions, how we get trained in being defensive, and how powerful they are.
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin To Munger
Ctrl Alt Delete: Reboot Your Business. Reboot Your Life. Your Future Depends on It.
[bctt tweet=”I’ll use the heuristic of 65% reread and 35% new reads (time not number of books. )”]
I’ve over extended.
At the beginning of the year, I made it a goal to read 100 books for the calendar year.
I have to do a quick accounting of the books I have read this year. I think I am close to 80 with two months to go.
With the end of the year coming up, there is a ton of downtime with the holidays. I’ll hit 100 books without being pressured, in between dinners and travel.
That isn’t why I am over extended.
The reason I am over extended is that with just reading the books that get through my filters (I will explain in another post, but I do not read any and everything), I still don’t have the time to dig into the books that really gave me pause.
My filters need to get stronger for me to get the most out of great books.
I’ve discovered some great ones over the last year though.
A few:
Even though I have read them, there is more to get out of these books.
I treat each book the same, sit down, savor, and move to the next one.
The books on that list (there are more) not only give me the completion feeling, but change how I see the world. Other books are interesting (I stop reading ones that don’t catch on with me, so they don’t count) but I get enough out of them in one reading to move on. They change smaller things, how I sleep or tweak a habit.
I need to spend more time with the home runs, and less time with the singles. Time is the only resource we don’t get back, and while a tweak helps after reading a book, spending that time on watershed moments that change my life work better.
Going forward, I will spend more time in the books like that, instead of newer text. Instead of going for numbers, i’ll mine the quality. I’ll use the heuristic of 65% reread and 35% new reads (time not number of books. )
As I get more engaged, some wrinkles will develop, but for now, this simplicity works.
This also means, I shouldn’t hit my goal of the year – a nice demarcation line.
Note: Don’t get me wrong, every book I finished this year left me with something. I am a better person from reading them, but certain books are on another level.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 