Another Page

Proudly, you read the last sentence on the page and flip the book closed. You have successfully finished reading yet another self-help book. 

You feel alive, ready to throw yourself at life. You were enthralled in the book and read each idea thoroughly thinking about how great each one was. You can’t wait to apply them to your life. 

Two weeks later, you still remember how great the book was but maybe it’s time to read a new one. 

You have forgotten the lessons from the first book that were so good and need the help of a new book to refocus. 

So you begin to turn a new set of pages. 

This is a game I have played many times. I have “read” (listened to) numerous books this year. I haven’t resonated with all of them but there have been helpful lessons in each of them. 

Do I remember all of those lessons? No.

Do I remember many of those lessons? No. 

Did any of the lessons change my behaviors? Yes—a little. 

So if these books are rarely influencing my behaviors and I’m not retaining all of the lessons, what is the point of reading them?

Could I not use this time more effectively? 

I’m sure I could in some ways but I still find this to be time well spent. 

First, I consume audiobooks while cooking, cleaning, walking on the treadmill, driving, and lifting. This time would otherwise be dead time spent listening to music or consuming media such as TV or movies. 

To me, audiobook consumption and learning from others, even if I don’t retain much, is a good use of otherwise dead time. 

Even if this wasn’t occuring during otherwise dead time, this would still be worth my time. 

I pull interesting ideas from this consumption to write about. 

I validate observations from my life, such as the observation that those that are successful are those that take action. 

I challenge some of my lines of thinking by listening to people that offer different perspectives from mine. 

I get to live the lives of numerous people in a matter of hours instead of lifetimes. Learning and adopting their perspective to influence my own. 

So no, these books don’t always immediately impact my behavior. Sometimes, it takes hearing the same lesson repeatedly before I take action, but the exposure from different perspectives adds to my own and ultimately helps to shape and inform the decisions that I make through my life experience. 

This isn’t always intentional and some of these lessons resurface much later in life but they give me a reason to turn another page.