A New Year Resolution For Why You Need To Read More
Reading a book opens new horizons and helps you think more strategically.
What a great opportunity to shape your thinking that becomes a differentiator in what you do. Here is why you need to read more.
As we start the New Year and the promise of keeping the momentum, with the aim to still keep it burning before the beginning of February, I say, read more in 2016.
It doesn’t involve subscribing for webinars to hear someone else’s point of view and their sales pitch. It doesn’t mean taking time out by having to travel four hours to hear a point of view. All it takes is a commitment to put the distractions that are everywhere to one side.
My preferred choice for self learning is still reading a hard copy of a book. For under £15 I have a wealth of knowledge to think about, apply and come back to. It has helped shape the momentum of what I write and provide a connection between what I do and why I do it. It is an intellectual journey that is ready to be embraced.
The link between reading a book and what you do after you have completed, all comes down to motivation. Reading can become your catalyst for change.
LinkedIn Posts Are Not Reading
Whilst it is easy to become distracted reading through Twitter and LinkedIn and clicking through to read articles that strike a personal chord, it is a bit like going for a run and thinking ‘I’ll stop for a walk when I reach that bus shelter.’ It just doesn’t make you feel that you’ve pushed yourself and can end feeling slightly unrewarded. Make this year, the year for longer form content.
Reading a book has a clear focus and a meaningful outcome. It’s intentions are to challenge the way that you think.
It’s a bit like the New Year promise of regular exercise and thinking ‘I won’t stop and take a cheeky breather, I’m going to do the full run.’ The feeling of finishing a book still has it’s roots in those days of school. You have given time, energy and thinking to completing from cover to cover.
The biggest commitment is to invest time and treat it as an asset. I always make sure I highlight sections of a book or make notes in Evernote. If you don’t write it down or highlight, you will always forget. When you build a rhythm from the notes you have made, you need to action. This is probably one of the reasons why I publish here every week.
Reading helps you stay informed, it keeps you up to date with how the rest of the world is progressing.
Shape A New Way Of Thinking
There is so much new thinking out there at the moment and some fantastic books have been published in the past few years from some key authors (many of whom are part of the Talking Content Marketing project).
We now live in a world where we are being encouraged to read much shorter content to cater for our decreasing concentration spans. We have readily available devices in our pockets to read articles that are free and readily available.
I say it is far better to sometimes go back to basics, find that quiet place and immerse yourself in a book and encourage your creative side to find its place.
If you are looking to build your knowledge within new marketing thinking and not quite sure where to start, a good place for direction is to listen to Douglas Burdett’s, Marketing Book Podcast.
The more you read, the better informed you become. New ideas can come to fruition and you become more creative. Let 2016 become the year where you become the momentum for change and new ideas.
SOMETHING FOR YOU
If you want to add to your reading list, I have four signed copies of The Content Revolution up for grabs
All you need to do is send your name/email (below) and will announce the four winners (my podcast companion Ian Rhodes will select) on the You Are The Media weekly newsletter on 14th January (plus I’ll also send an email to the four winners for their address, in the UK or overseas).
If you want to read more about the book and what you will take from it click here.
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