Each day, I have a 25-minute commute to work. This gives me almost an hour devoted to learning; while Bernadette has been in the Netherlands, I have been soaking in almost two hours of learning each day. My learning tool of choice for these situations has been the podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire by John Lee Dumas.
During this podcast, he interviews a different successful entrepreneur each day. While there are many lessons to be learned, there are a number of themes that seem to shine through. One topic that has been emphasized over and over is the importance of coaches and mentors to the learning process. While I would love one-on-one mentoring on a number of topics, I do have access to countless coaches on many subjects, and so don’t you.
CEOs, celebrities, and professional athletes take advantage of coaches and mentors to help them improve their performances. Coaches and mentors are not only for the rich and famous, everyone has the ability to stand on the shoulders of giants. In the book, Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, Do Work That Matters, Acuff comments on the positive effects that working with others has on the learning process.
Through the power of reading, you have the ability to be coached and mentored by countless individuals who have learned valuable lessons and want to share them with you. Reading is a powerful way to keep your personal and professional development moving forward. Through a number of posts, I have written about the importance of reading for self-development.
- A look at some high-speed reading lists
- Want to earn more, then read more – 230% more
- Our Founding Fathers Rocked Their Personal Learning Networks
You can only achieve so much in your tiny bubble; however, you can expand that bubble by bringing in the ideas of others through reading. I try to read regularly throughout the year. Others like Bill Gates and President Obama take vacations for the purpose of reading and reflecting.
With each book I read, I try to at least write a quick book review to reflect upon what I read. I often pull in one or two new ideas into my practices. My new team hates Mondays because I often come in with lots of new ideas. Fortunately, they are finding that not all of them are bad.
Do you take time to read? How do you block off time? Do you have a goal for your reading? Do you see it as a form of mentoring?
