LIFE S.A.V.E.R.S.
R Is for Reading
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body and prayer is to the soul. We become the books we read.”
—Matthew Kelly
“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.”
—Margaret Fuller
It has been said that experience is our greatest teacher. Whoever said that may have failed to clarify whether the experience must be our own or if our greatest teacher could also be gleaned from the experience had by others. If the latter is true, then that would help explain why the fifth practice in the S.A.V.E.R.S.— reading—is one of the most efficient and effective methods for acquiring the knowledge, perspectives, and strategies you need to change, improve, or optimize any area of your life.
To be clear, I’m referring to reading nonfiction content written by authors who have gotten results that are in alignment with those you aspire to, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You can achieve everything you want much faster by modeling someone who has already achieved it. With an almost infinite number of books available on nearly every topic, there are no limits to the knowledge you can gain through daily reading.
Want to be happier? Healthier? Wealthier? Are you looking to start a business, run a marathon, or be a better parent? There are countless books written by those who have already done these things and will teach you how you can do the same, thereby shortening your learning curve and accelerating your success.
How Long Should You Read For?
In the next two chapters, we’ll explore various durations for each of your S.A.V.E.R.S, but I recommend dedicating at least 10 minutes of your Miracle Morning to reading, and longer if you’d prefer. Personally, I allocate 20 minutes of my Miracle Morning to reading (and I also read again for 10 to 20 minutes before bed). However, keeping in mind that it only takes one big idea to change your life, I encourage you to consider quality over quantity and less is more approaches to reading.
Let’s do some quick math to help put into perspective how a relatively small amount of daily reading can make a profound impact in your life. Although reading speeds naturally vary from one person to the next, the average reader can get through around three hundred words in a minute. Most statistics consider a page to contain roughly three hundred words, so on average, reading a page takes roughly one minute, or two minutes if you’re reading at a slower pace. Thus, 10 minutes of reading would result in an average of 5 to 10 pages read.
If you quantify that, reading just 10 pages a day will average 3,650 pages a year, which equates to about eighteen 200-page books. Let me ask you: If you read 18 personal or professional development books in the next 12 months, do you think you will be more knowledgeable, capable, and confident—a new and improved you? Absolutely! Reading 10 pages per day is not going to break you, but it will make you.
What Should You Read?
What you should read is determined by your goals. When people are surveyed and asked what they want more than anything, the number one answer is typically “happiness.” I don’t know about you, but I’m always striving to be happy and enjoy life, and here are some books that have helped me do that:
•The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha
•The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Anchor
•The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama
•Loving What Is by Byron Katie
•The Untethered Soul, Living Untethered, and The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer
Another one of the most popular answers when asking people what they want is, not surprisingly, “more money.” If you want to improve your financial situation, here are some of my favorite books, including the newest titles in the Miracle Morning book series:
•Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
•Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
•Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
•The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs coauthored by Cameron Herold, with Honorée Corder
•Miracle Morning Millionaires coauthored by David Osborn, with Honorée Corder
Want to create an incredibly loving, supportive, and harmonious romantic relationship? There are probably more books on how to do exactly that than you could read in a decade. Here are a few of my favorites:
•The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman
•Choose Her Every Day by Bryan Reeves
•The Seven Principles for Making a Marriage Work by John M. Gottman and Nan Silver
•The Miracle Morning for Couples coauthored by Lance and Brandy Salazar, with Honorée Corder (for couples who want to work on their relationship together)
•The Miracle Morning for Transforming Your Relationship coauthored by Stacey and Paul Martino, with Honorée Corder (for individuals who want to know how they can improve their relationship when their partner may not be on board)
Whether you want to be happier, make more money, transform your relationships, increase your self-confidence, be a better parent, or transform any other area of your life, visit your local bookstore or head to Amazon.com, and you’ll find a plethora of books on any aspect of your life or yourself that you want to improve. For those who want to minimize your carbon footprint or save money, your local library is also a wonderful resource.
Tips to Maximize the Value of Your Reading
•Begin with the end in mind. Before you begin reading each day, ask yourself why you are reading that book. What do you want to gain from it? How will you implement what you’re learning? Keep those outcomes in mind. I invite you take a moment to do this now by asking yourself what you want to gain from reading this book. More importantly, are you committed to implementing what you’re learning by completing the Miracle Morning 30-Day Journey in Chapter 10?
•Read religious texts. Some Miracle Morning practitioners use their reading time to catch up on their religious texts, such as the Bible, Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), Quran, or any other.
•Mark up your books. Hopefully, you took the suggestion I made in the beginning of this book, and you’ve been underlining, circling, highlighting, folding the corners of pages, and taking notes in the margins. To get the most out of any book I read and make it easy for me to revisit the content again in the future, I underline or circle anything that I may want to revisit, and I make notes in the margins to remind me why I underlined that particular section. This process of marking up books as I read allows me to come back at any time and recapture the key lessons, ideas, and benefits in a fraction of the time without needing to read the entire book again.
•Reread books to master the content. I highly recommend rereading useful personal development books. Rarely can we read a book once and internalize all the value contained within. Our first read merely exposes us to the ideas in the book. But achieving mastery requires repetition—exposing ourselves to specific ideas, strategies, and techniques repeatedly until they become ingrained in our subconscious and integrated into our life. Whenever I’m reading a book that I see will really make an impact on an area of my life, I commit to rereading that book (or at least the parts I’ve underlined, circled, and highlighted) as soon as I’m finished reading it the first time. I keep a special space on my bookshelf for the books that I want to reread and often refer to them throughout the year. Rereading requires discipline because it is typically more fun to read a book you’ve never read before. Repetition can be boring or tedious (which is why so few people ever master anything), but that’s even more reason why we should do it—to develop a higher level of self-discipline.
Why not try it out with this book? Commit to rereading it as soon as you’re finished to deepen your learning and give yourself more time to master your mornings.