Book 2: How to Win Friends and Influence People

You may notice that the blog is being posted on Monday again... though I did not get the post up in time I did finish the book yesterday! So I read a book in a week! It is possible and even though majority of my reading was done over the weekend and I am learning I need to intentionally plan times to read, I am still thoroughly enjoying this process.

So what did I learn this week?

Too many things to include in this post.
It seriously is an amazing book on how to interact with other people in life in general, business, and a lot of things that can apply to raising children. I would really recommend it to anyone who would like to improve their friendships, create new ones, and to improve relations with anyone they come into contact with. 

My favorite takeaway is be genuinely interested in people and what they say. Do it with sincerity and you will create friends, open doors in business, and make someone's day.

I think putting the principles in this book into practice will make my life better and the lives of the people around me better as well.

This week's book is the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. I am looking forward to what I am going to learn!

Book 1: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

So for starters I didn't make my goal for this week. I am a day late but I have completed the first book and  I am not going to let this initial setback keep me from my goal. I want to learn from my failures and use them as inspiration to do better next time. So even though I failed week one, I am not discouraged and still believe I can do this.

I have been thinking a lot about what I am actually going to write about concerning each book and I have settled on telling you what I have learned. Because after all this is a blog to inspire learning.

What have I learned?
I have learned that I am in control of where I go in life and what I do a lot more than I let myself believe. The premise of the book is that ideas that are backed with well though out planning, desire for success, and perseverance have the ability to help you reach whatever riches or goals that you want for yourself. That is a brief summary obviously and there is a lot more to it but it has inspired me.

It has inspired me to tap into my desires. To search myself and to see what is keeping me from reaching my potential. And mostly it has inspired me to dream. But dreams will never turn into reality if they are not formulated into well thought out goals.

I want to re-read it because it is a dense book and I know I will get more out of it with a re-read. But for now I am onto my next book: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Join me if you would like or pick up Think and Grow Rich. You will be inspired.

So how am I going to do this…

For starters I have challenged myself to read one book a week.

Yes one book a week. No idea if I am going to be able to do this but if a challenge is not challenging then it is no challenge at all. I have already started my first book for this challenge which I will tell you about on Sunday, when I have finished it. My plan is to get all my books from the library because it is an amazing resource we rarely capitalize on. I will gladly take suggestions from anyone but I will only be reading books that have the potential to widen my view of the world. Books that will challenge me as an individual and develop my passion to learn.

That is my goal for now. One blog a week about the book I have completed the previous week.

For a side project, I hope to post randomly throughout the weeks. These posts will be all over the place in topics and in form; e.g. videos, other blogs, websites, and people. I may comment on the material and I may just let it stand for itself but I want my avenues of learning to be as broad as this modern age allows.

To be honest I have never been good at sticking with things. I get bored and sidetracked easily. I know there will be weeks where I will want nothing to do with books and reading or learning for that matter but I want a challenge in my life that means something. This is the idea I have come up with.

Once I get going I hope to post the book I am going to read at the end of the review of the previous book so you can maybe join.

Actually I challenge you to join. Think about it. It could change your life too.

Reigniting a Passion for Learning

I never liked school growing up.

As I got older I attended less often.

Grades were never a problem for me.  I worked the system in order to do the least amount of work for an A and that is what I got. I would figure out what a teacher or a professor was looking for and would give them those answers because that is what got As. I learned a lot in the process but really only learned what I had to.  

I didn’t attend school to learn. I went to do my time. I didn’t see school as a bridge to opportunity. I saw it as a necessary evil that I must complete to become a productive member of society.

I missed the point. I missed the possibilities. I took my access to education for granted.

I know I am not alone.

I didn’t have this realization till I ended up going to university in another country. At the time I couldn’t point my finger on how the students in this developing nation were different but I knew they were.

They wanted to learn. They weren’t just toeing the line of the educational system, they had this passionate drive to understand and grasp the topics that were being taught. Their learning didn’t stop at the end of the lecture or at the end of the assignment, it spilled all over into their lives. They did not seek to learn what they had to, they sought to learn all that they could.

I found myself drawn into their passionate learning. Drawn to understand what made them want to learn so earnestly. I wanted their passion and still do.

What I found was that they saw their education as a gift not a right. It was not something that society had mandated upon them but it is was something that they had overcome all odds to attain.

I recently read somewhere that after finishing formal education, majority of Americans never read a book again. NEVER READ A BOOK AGAIN. It hit me like a ton of bricks. One of the most privileged societies in the world with access to any book we could want to read and we never read a book again after we finish school.

I know I can’t change how American’s take their access to education for granted but I can change me. I have a college degree but I have decided my learning doesn’t stop there. I have decided to reignite a passion for learning within myself. I want to use my resources to learn all I can and I want to bring what I learn to you. I want to challenge you to seek to learn. To learn something worthwhile and to widen your view of the world.