The average adult makes 35 thousand decisions every day. It's impossible to keep track of them all. That’s why our brain kicks on the autopilot. Most of the time autopilot is great! But when the autopilot is trained to follow the wrong directions things don’t go as planned. Unfortunately like most people reading this, I am frequently reset to my autopilot default settings.
One of those default settings is a preference for television and movies over books. For the last 2 years, I have set out on a journey to read 52 books. For the last 2 years, I have failed to complete that journey. Both years started great and quickly fell behind prioritizing other forms of media and entertainment.
I am forcing my brain out of this autopilot default state by experimenting with a new approach. I will start by documenting my progress publicly at least 1 time per month. I also am more focused on the weekly goal of 1 book per week with a minimum of 20 minutes read per day.
So far this year I have already read 4 books, today I will recap the first two books.
I read/listen to The Alchemist every year. Each time I read it I find a way to get new golden nuggets. There is a section in The Alchemist where a King tells the shepherd boy a story of a traveler who is seeking the meaning of life from a wise man in a castle. The wise man teaches him the power of enjoying life in the moment while never forgetting your purpose. It’s a helpful reminder to live in the moment and appreciate the world around us.
This book truly gives you a new framework to view the world. Most friends that I know that have read this book end up making life-altering decisions because of it. When I read this book the first time I closed a business I was running packed a bag and flew to Thailand. I was able to reconnect with my true purpose and explore the things that mattered most from a distance. Similar to the boy in the alchemist traveling to Egypt to realize his treasure was back home all along.
If you have not read this book I recommend it with the absolute most admiration I can provide. If you have no desire to change your mind, “break free from the matrix”, or you already have a very clear personal “legend” then skip this book and go to the next one.
I listen to my books but if you are inclined to read this book and want to support this update feel free to check it out using my affiliate link.
My partner Kayla recommended I read this book again. Working on my good habits didn’t feel like a priority. Right now I am exposed to a significant amount of pressure and stress. It’s hard to find time in the day to work on self-improvement. I could not have been more wrong. The habits we build when our environment is challenging are the most important. We have to level up to that challenge. We have to continue the momentum at all costs. The only way to do this is by taking small steps every day until we have built an unbreakable habit.
This year I have tried to stick to the mindset of the British cycling team pushing to get 1% better every day. Most of this book has been oversensationalized on social media with self-help guru influencers, but at its core the principles are solid. Consistent reading is part of my habits and learning to build accountability is also important. That is why I have started to document my reading collection in a monthly, bi-weekly, and hopefully weekly cadence. In addition to posting my reading recaps and notes, I am finishing and posting my habit tracker every week on this blog. Although a lot of people will likely not read this post the, act of documenting the process should help me reprogram my monkey brain toward making a 1% improvement every day.
