While everyone else is doing a ‘New Year New You’ program (there are thousands of them), we offer you a different path. One often less taken. We present to you the 12 Week Self Remodel. Each Monday for 12 weeks we’ll post one thing you can change in your life, easily, to help create the life you really want. Each one is a small adjustment to your existing life, small stepping stones to a better you. As such, they take little effort or time to accomplish. Each one will be posted later in the day, intentionally. Your work week may start on Monday, but the Reclaimed week starts on Tuesday. Less competition for your time, and less stress (also something to look forward to on your Monday commute). So, let’s begin.

Week 2 – Read a Book

There are plenty of self-help and productivity gurus out there that claim to read a non-fiction book a week, even a book or more a DAY. We call bullshit. They are either speed reading at such a speed 80% of what they saw never made it in their brains (therefore they really wasted their time), or they listened to audio books. For some reason a lot of the gurus think listening to something is reading it. It’s not. It may be consuming a book, but it is not reading.

We recommend you start with a reasonable goal. Read non-fiction for 15 minutes each day; preferably 30 minutes, but 15 will do. Don’t aim to read a book a week or a month. Just read, and however many books you read, that’s fine. The knowledge of the world can be found in the pages of books. There is knowledge to the internet, and Mr. Google will help you find that when you need it, but the core of human knowledge is in books. Pick any topic, it doesn’t matter – just start.

Now, while I did get picky about listening to audiobooks not being reading a book, don’t think that means we discourage using them. For some, auditory learning works better for them. Not to mention most of us have a commute to work. These are great examples of when audio books are excellent options. That said, if you can get your hands on a physical, bound book, read it. Audio and electronic books have their place, but they can’t replace a real book in your hands.

Want to really up your reading game? Create a place in your home for it. Sit back in a comfortable chair with a nice drink, maybe some soft music playing in the background. Personally, I read more than an hour each day. Every morning I read non-fiction, and each evening I read fiction. I have favorite places to do both.

Put the world in the palm of your hands, start reading today.

Let us know how you’re doing on the Self Remodel in the comments below.

< Week 1 – Week 3 >