Trying to make changes in your life? Trial and error works – it just takes a long time. A mentor is a godsend, but they hard to find. A coach is another great investment but be prepared to spend some money. So how do you improve without wasting a lot time and money?

Reading!  It’s simple, cheap, and best of all, it can be done anywhere. It’s a great way to improve yourself.

I’m always striving  to improve myself. I think of books as an integral part of the process.

Thinking back on my life I can attest that trial and error is not how you want to go through your self improvement journey. Bad life choices can take years to turn around.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few people along the way that I’ve considered to be mentors’s. Understandably they only have so much time available.

You can hire a coach. Honestly this is a great way to “get ahead”. It can be pricey but you really don’t want a to hire a “budget rate” life coach.

So what can you do you ask….

Here’s a secret used by many of the top performers out there – they read and read a lot.

Here’s some tips to help you improve your reading skills: 

Keep a list – I keep mine in Evernote. Any book that gets recommended to me I write down in Evernote and I cross them off as I read them. It’s like a positive reward system. It shows me how much I’ve accomplished.

Read it more than once – don’t be afraid to re-read a book. You pick up so many great details the second time through.

Make notes and highlights – Don’t be afraid to mark up your book. I mostly read on the Kindle app, which, makes reviewing your notes a breeze.

Skip sections of the book – If it’s not something that pertains to what you need to know or it’s a “been there done that” type of thing then skip it. You are reading for yourself not to do a book report.

Skip the entire book – Yes really, skip it. If it’s not that great move on. Cut your loses and find an exceptional book, they are out there.

Read when you can – I read all the time and constantly throughout the day. Whenever I have a moment, like before a meeting, I read. Having a set time each day to read is a good way to ensure that you make progress on your book.

Keep your reading material organized – On occasion I read 2 books at once. I don’t do this often and don’t recommend it for most people but it can be a good way to make a lot of progress in a short period of time. I keep my books organized in my Kindle app using the collections feature – read more about this here.

Vary your genre – Don’t just read self help books! Mix it up. Read some novels and bio’s. Learning through someone else’s story is a really effective way of learning.

The more you read the better you will get at it. You will get faster and retain more as time goes on. Remember to go back and look over your notes. Skim through your notes once a month on a book that really influenced you. Don’t let what you learned fade away.

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