One Hour a Day

[Reading] one hour a day will translate into approximately one book a week. One book a week will translate into approximately fifty books over the next twelve months. If you read an hour a day, one book per week, you will be an expert in your field within three years. You will be a national authority in five years, and you will be an international authority in seven years. – Brian Tracy

I don’t read one hour a day every day. Most days, but not every day. The suggestion is for non-fiction books all in the same field. I read a lot of fiction, but as my book reviews show, I also read a good deal of non-fiction, too, just not all of it in the same field. It’s a nice thought to be an international authority in less than ten years (giving you a little time to slack off). That’s over 350 books. There are some fields of study that don’t even have 350 books written! Still, even if you read just a half hour a day (like on your two 15 minute breaks at work – one in the morning and one in the afternoon, or during your commute perhaps with a book on tape, or any other way you want), you’ll be a national authority in ten years. How much better would you job be if you were a national authority? Would you even have that job or would you manage to create your dream job instead? Heck, even in three to six years, you will be an expert. Expert. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? I’d love to be an expert in certain things. What kinds of things would you like to be an expert in? Do you want to be an expert in your Future? An authority, perhaps? You can be, if you choose to be. You can create this in your Future.

What You Read

What you read, what you see, what you listen to truly influences your thoughts. – Pat Williams

You are what you eat. You are also what your mind “eats”. What you read, what you listen to, what sort of environment you put yourself into, it all influences your brain, your thoughts, your personality. If you read racist bullfeathers, you will get influenced by it. Maybe this will inspire you to fight racism, or maybe it will chip away at your mind, creating a slippery slope where this is okay because it isn’t “really” racist.

You don’t think that this is true? I’ve got a challenge for you. For one month, read the teachings of Jesus, Buddha, Ghandi, and Teresa of Avila, and just these people. Every day, read some of this. At the end of the month, write down how you feel, emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally. Then, for the next month, read the teachings of Hitler, Mussolini, and the Marquis de Sade, and just these people. Every day, read some of this. At the end of the month, write down how you feel, again emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally. If you want to make it really interesting, without telling your roommate/coworker/significant other what you’re doing, ask them at the end of each month how they think your behavior has been over the past month compared to normally. See what they think.

If the two month end reports are exactly the same, that’s impressive and rare. More likely you’ll feel a whole lot worse after the second month but will have plenty of excuses for it, something, anything, that doesn’t have to do with what you read.

Whatever you may think, no matter what excuses you may have, the truth is that what you put into yourself influences yourself, and like a computer, it’s garbage in, garbage out. Treat yourself to the good stuff.

Burning Books

Where one begins by burning books, one will end up burning people. – Heinrich Heine

I do not approve of burning books. I do not approve of most kinds of censorship. I’m hard pressed to think of any kind of censorship that I would approve of, for adults that is. With kids, it’s a different story. But, this post is about adults.

Books contain ideas, radical ideas, different ideas, powerful ideas. Books provide points of view that differ and perhaps confuse people. Books can make people think. For these reasons, some people consider them dangerous and should be burned so they do not disrupt the harmony in society (what society they think they’re living in, I’m not sure; my society isn’t in harmony).

However, people contain ideas, radical ideas, different ideas, powerful ideas. People provide points of view that differ and confuse people. People can make people think. For these reasons, some people consider them dangerous and should be censored so that they do not disrupt the harmony in society. But in America, we have freedom of speech and I believe it can be said with a good deal of accuracy that America as a whole likes to shake things up a bit.

You cannot have both censorship and freedom, and you cannot have both freedom and complete harmony. Freedom is too important to ban or burn books, even at the expense of harmony in society, because generally that harmony is just a surface illusion at best while freedom, when done right, can exist throughout the whole.

The Millionaire Next Door

The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko. I read this book perhaps a decade ago. I read it again about five years ago. This past summer, I bought a copy, and it now resides on my bookshelf for me to pick up and leaf through whenever I want. I recommend this book. It has a lot of statistics, but it also has a lot of examples and stories. If you don’t like statistics or if you don’t like stories, you could still enjoy this book. Just skip over the parts you don’t like. I recommend this book. It’s an eye-opener about who really is a millionaire and what they really do. It also has a lot of excellent suggestions about how to become a millionaire yourself. Have I become a millionaire in the past 10 years since I read it? No, but I don’t always practice what I know is best for me. However, I’m closer to it than a lot of my friends, and I fully intend to get there, and this book will help.

Fresh Start

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call “failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down. – Mary Pickford

An appropriate quote for me considering the brief hiatus I’ve taken on Mondays. The previous week’s Monday was because I discovered rather late that I duplicated a quote and essentially a post, so I deleted the post and never got around to putting up another one. This past Monday is because I am in a bout of laziness and lethargy, not to mention a heaping dose of apathy, though that is waning. I simply didn’t get around to it. But, I start fresh again. I do not abandon my blog just because of a few missed posts. I continue.

You, too, can continue with your dreams and your goals, even after you have stumbled. There are some things that are simply unattainable for the price you’re willing to pay, but there are a lot more things that seem just out of reach but really just need to try one more time. I wish you luck in discovering which is which, and I hope you wish me luck in that as well.

Beauty of Dreams

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of dreams. – Eleanor Roosevelt

If you cannot imagine the Future, if you have no goal or dream for your Future, then it really doesn’t matter a whole lot what you do, because your Future will merely happen to you. It will not belong to you.

If you can imagine, if you do have goals and dreams, and you can see the beauty and desirability of them, then you can work towards them, and your Future will belong to you through your efforts.

If you want to shape your Future, see it first. Imagine, dream, and create goals. It’s up to you.

Everything You Want

You can have anything you want, but you can’t have everything you want. – John-Roger & Peter McWilliams

It seems to me that these guys are pessimists. Unfortunately, their book makes a lot of sense. I reviewed it in an earlier post. You can have everything you want, just not necessarily at the same time. Also, you can have everything that’s essential to you – that you not only want but need to have a fulfilled life, provided you are completely honest with yourself about what you truly need.

You don’t have to settle for “good enough”, but you do have to realize that “perfection” is in the eye of the beholder, and greedy beholders have very large eyes. Go for “great”. Go for “amazing”. Go for “astonishingly wonderful”. Get what you truly need and add what you want the most until you can fit nothing more into your wonderful life.

You can have a fantastic Future. You deserve get. Go out and grab it.

Castles on the Ground

Dream but also do; wish but build; imagine but ever face reality. – Dr. Joseph Fetterman

A lot of people build castles in the sky. They imagine how great it would be if X would happen or once they actually got off their butts and did Y. But, X never happens, and they never get off their butts.

Others build their castles on the ground, or build the ground up to their castles. You can have a castle in the sky, so long as you have very long and sturdy pillars beneath it. Or you know how to fly. You start with today and a dream, and then you work your butt off to get from here to there. Without a dream, time just passes. Without work, time just passes and dreams float away. Make time yours, make it work for you, not just pass. The way to do this is to work for yourself and your dream. Act. It’s the only way.

Read For Your Life

Read for Your Life: 11 Ways to Transform Your Life with Books by Pat Williams with Peggy Matthews Rose is a passionate look at reading, why it’s important, and what to do about the lack of it in today’s America. If you don’t love reading, this book may change your mind. If you do love reading, this book will strike a chord with you.

The first couple of chapters drag a bit as it discusses the statistics of illiteracy. It tries very hard to make the case that there is too much illiteracy in America and that we should do something about it. The rest of the book is dedicated more to reading – improving your own, inspiring others to do so, what to read, how to read, and many other things. It really is a very well written book, other than the dragging problem. But, even the dragging wasn’t quite enough to turn me off to the book entirely. Trust me, if you start to read this book, continue. It is worth it.

October Appreciation Day

This month, I sent positive feedback to two fan-fiction writers that I enjoy. I sometimes go through droughts where I don't find the sort of fiction that I really enjoy reading, but those two provided it, and I wanted to let them know.

What Do You Think About?

You become what you think about. – Earl Nightingale

If believe that it’s hopeless, it is. If you believe it’s impossible, it is. For you. Perhaps not for me. Or for your sister. Or for your coworker, or perhaps former coworker who has started her own business even though you were sure it’d fail. After all, you had the idea a year before she did, and it didn’t work for you. If you insist on believing that things are impossible, that’s fine for you, but I don’t want you in my life. You’re negative and annoying and generally self-centered. At least all of the “impossible”-ists that I know are annoyingly self-centered.

Another side to this is that when you think about something often enough, you start to make it happen. You worry about divorce, and you start looking for signs where there weren’t any. You worry about losing your job, and you are suddenly too worried to have enough energy to do your job properly. On the other hand, you think that you’ll get a steady relationship with a decent person, and your confidence will shine through and you will stop focusing on the losers. You think you’ll be successful in your job, and you start acting like you are. And if you don’t become successful in that job, you realize you are at least very good at your job and deserve better, finding a job where you can be successful. Self-fulfilling prophecies do happen.

Another side to this is what you read, watch, and talk about. If you talk about doom and gloom constantly, watch nothing but the news on the “all death” station, and read people predicting that the country will fall any moment now, you’re not going to do really well. All your energy’s going to be tied up in the awfulness of the here and now, whether that’s real or not. The greatest activists don’t say, “This is wrong!” and then shut up. The greatest activists say, “This is wrong, and here’s how it could be better!” They focus on the “how it could be better” part, bringing that into being. They see reality, see the changes that can be made, see the future as it could be, and then bring it about.

Take a look at your thoughts, your reading material, your viewing choices, and see what is in your mind and see your Future. What you put into your head is in part what will come out and shape you and your Future. Make good choices.

Impossible For Now

I thought it was impossible too before I did it. - Lance Armstrong

I heard the story about the four minute mile a while ago. Sports enthusiasts, forgive me if I get this a little wrong. For a long time, it was believed that humans could not run a four minute mile. It was just physically impossible. We weren’t built for that kind of speed for that long of a distance. All the experts believed that. This went on for years. Then a guy did it. Within the next year, so did several others. What changed? It suddenly became possible in the person’s mind. That’s the only difference. It was a change of thought. Humans didn’t suddenly evolve into speedier beings. Physically, we were just the same as the previous year. Only our thinking changed. And because our thinking changed, our possibilities changed.

Your possibilities can change. Believe they can, and they will.

What We’re Capable Of

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems. - Mahatma Gandhi

This quote makes me feel a lot of things – sad, mad, guilty, kicked in the butt. Right now, at this very moment, I am most certainly not doing everything I can. Heck, I’m not even doing everything I want. Of the seven deadly sins, mine right now is sloth. What could I do if I did what I could? What heights could I achieve if I did what I wanted to succeed and create and affect the world, rather than playing games and watching old TV shows? The number of books I could read, the number of books I could write, how soon I could pay off my car loan, how fat I could make my bank account, how many works of art I could create that are swirling around in my brain but just haven’t quite yet made it onto paper. It’s stunning. It really is stunning. And I’m a little afraid of it all. I’m wrapped up all cozy and warm in my comfort zone. Heck, I have a little hidey hole under my stairs where I keep my computer and phone. What more do I need? It’s frightening to think of doing this for the next five years, and it’s frightening to think of where and what I could be if I shook off the chains of sloth and became truly me. What could I be?

Part of me says, “Oh, you won’t be doing this for five years. You’ll snap out of it and start being you again.” Then I think about where I was five years ago. My computer and TV weren’t under the stairs, but they were in a cave-like atmosphere that I rarely left without prompting. I’m really not that far from where I was five years ago when it comes to that. And it’s easy to say, “Things will be different in five years”, but unless I do something, they won’t be. It’s amazing how time will slip by when you don’t put any energy into making something different.

We’re all amazing people. We just need to get rid of a few chains to let our light shine forth.

Ability and Character

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there. - John Wooden

We see it most with sports stars because they’re flashy, we watch them anyway, and the media love to revel in the destruction of our heroes. A sports figure will hit the top of her game, make huge money, and become well known. If she has character, she will continue to be pretty much the same person as she has always been. If she does not, she will start believing what the press and the sycophants say about her and believing she’s entitled to what’s she’s gotten even if her game slips. When those over-inflated egos take a tumble, the same media that manned the pumps earlier will now be there to revel in her defeat.

It’s the same in business. Ethical businesses stay in business longer than unethical businesses of the same ability level. It’s the same with relationships. An unethical person can get lots of dates, but an ethical person can get a longer-lasting relationship. And on and on. Ability will get you far, but character, ethics, doing the honorable thing, will aid you greatly, too.