How To Get More Out Of The Books You Read

Are you a fast reader, a slow reader, a medium paced reader? Are you a really, really good reader or a really, really bad reader? Are you a really prolific reader or do you just read every now and then? Are you one of those people who, when you got out of school, you haven't read a book since? I've read so many books and I used to hate reading. I used to hate reading because when I was in elementary school, when you had to read in front of the class, there was always a kid that messed up and all the other kids would laugh at him. I was that kid. And I always felt like when I was reading, I always felt like when I was reading, I felt like the words were just moving and I had to chase them down and make them sit still so I could read them. Sit still. I'm trying to read you, you know, and I just don't even now my brain moves so much faster than my eyes that reading requires a lot of intention and attention for me. But I still read a lot of books. I listen to more audio books than I do read books because I listen to audiobooks to gain some concepts. And if the audiobooks are really, really good, I'll go back and read the physical book. So I'm going to teach you today how to get the most out of the books you read. And so the first thing you have to do is figure out why am I reading this book in the first place. Am I reading this book to relax? If that's you, congratulations. I've never done that in my life. I don't read books to relax because reading books is not relaxing to me. The worst thing for me to do would be to read a book before I go to bed at night. And I get one idea. Now I can't sleep, right? So, no, I'm not reading books for relaxation. That ain't happening. Do you read. Are you reading books to. Are you looking for nuggets? Just reading a book, looking for nuggets. Some books are books that you read looking for nuggets. Like a lot of Ryan Holiday's books are like that. You just read them looking for nuggets. I think Atomic Habits is kind of like that. You just read it. You're looking for me. It was.

The Naval Revicant book. I forgot what the name of it was. But the one where he did the tweet storm thing, that's like, I'm looking for nuggets, right? So when I'm reading books like that, it's different than if I'm reading for the purpose of learning to master a concept. See, we make the mistake of thinking that the purpose of learning is knowing. And so we read because we think, I want to know this thing, right? And so we read and we'll memorize something or we'll learn about something. And we'll make the mistake of thinking that because we read a book on it, that we know it. But I submit to you that the purpose of reading, the purpose of learning is not knowing, but the purpose of learning is mastery. What is mastery? Mastery is the ability to execute effortlessly without the use of conscious resources. I'm going to say that again. Mastery is the ability to execute effortlessly without the use of conscious resources. By the way, if you look up mastery in a dictionary, you're probably not going to find that that's the definition I gave it for the purpose of me teaching you about mastery from my perspective. So you know what I'm talking about when I say mastery. So I hope you're tracking. Okay? Now, when you get a book that's going to be a game changer. There's a couple of things I do. I will never read a book without my book satchel. So I've got this leather book satchel that I carry books in. Somebody gave it to me as a gift. It's got my initials on. It's really cool. Got this leather book satchel inside. I keep my books that I'm reading.

Right? I keep books that I'm reading. So I'll keep the books in there, but I also keep highlighters.

Pens, three by five cards. And where did I put it? It's up here somewhere. Oh, and my favorite sticky notes. Okay, I am not reading a book that, that I am looking to master the concepts in without these tools, okay? It's not gonna happen. So when I'm ready to master the concept, what I'll do is I'll take out the book and I'll start reading and something hits me and I'll highlight it and then I'll think about what I highlighted and I might read it one or two or three more times. Takes me a long time to get through a book. I started on this one last week. I think it's got like 40 something pages. And I'll be done with it here this week. Okay? So.

I don't read books really, really fast because I don't read fast. I'm not a fast reader, but I'm a thorough reader. And so what I'll do is I'm gonna show you here, I'll highlight, you can See it? I'm gonna show you up close and personal here in a minute. I'll highlight things in the book. I'll highlight things in the book. You can see I've got stuff highlighted. You see that? Okay, got stuff highlighted. But then what I'll do is I'll Charlie Jones some stuff by putting a sticky note and writing down what I thought of. Now, what do I mean when I say Charlie Jones? Charlie Jones was a mentor of mine and a friend of mine, and he wrote a book called Life is Tremendous even before I even knew him. I read his book when I was 21. I didn't meet him probably until I was in my 30s, but when I was 21 and I was in college, somebody gave me the book Life is Tremendous by Charlie Tremendous Jones. And I read that book. I would say there was a sentence in that book that has changed my life maybe more than any other sentence in any other book other than the Bible that I've ever read. And it has made me more money than any other sentence I've ever read. How's that for an open loop? Okay. And here's what Charlie said. I'm gonna say it in his voice. When you read a book or you listen to a sermon, or you go to a talk and somebody says something and you really like it, don't write down what they said. Write down what you thought of as a result of what they said. I'm telling you, that phrase, that sentence changed my life because what it taught me to do was to take notes on my own thoughts. That's why when you listen to me, you hear me say so many things no one has ever said before that you've never heard anybody say before. Why? Because I don't just quote people.

I'll renovate somebody's quote. I'll write down what they made me think of. So this is what it looks like when I read a book. So this is one of my favorite books. It's called U Squared. And I want to show you that this is, like. This is not just. Okay, that's a table of contents. It doesn't have anything underlined or highlighted or no sticky notes, right? So when I read a book, I do this on, like. And if there's something on every page, right. Then I do it on every page. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to share with you all what I'm doing when I'm doing this. So you'll see, by the time I get done with all this book, I've Got all of these quotes on all these sticky notes. And I'm going to go and I'm going to put them in a Google Doc and I am going to put them in a Google Doc by category, same thing. This book right here is a book I just started reading. I just showed you that one. This book right here, this is my sales copy book. Like, I'm a really good copywriter, but sometimes I don't want to think about it. So Evaldo, Albuquerque, wrote this book called the 16 Word Sales Letter. So this book is $39. It's like 100 pages, maybe 80 pages, 90 pages, something. It's 87 pages. And this book, same thing. You can see, same thing, right? So.

Anytime I write a sales letter, I get this book and I take it out and I follow the 16 word sales letter formula. The last 16 word sales letter that I wrote, I wrote, I think back in May or June of this year. And that sales letter has made me almost $4 million.

From this book, right? So I read this book for the purpose of like mastering something. One of my new favorites.

Our author is in the room here, Dr. Milton Howard. It's called the Minefield.

So I started reading this book and, and it literally, it blew my mind. And I'm like sticky noting and highlighting stuff like a crazy person. This book's so good, it made my brain sweat. Okay? And so that's how I read books. Now I'm going to show you what I'm doing on those sticky notes. I'm going to come over here to my board and I'm going to come to one of my favorite books of all times. This is, in fact, I'm going to get the book too, so that I can read what's covered up in the sticky notes. And so this is one of my favorite books by.

Price Pritchett. It's called you'd Squared. It basically teaches you how to have a quantum leap by focusing on having a quantum leap. That's basically what the book is about, right? It's 36 pages of pure, juicy goodness. And when somebody joins my mastermind, one of the assignments I give them, read this book every week for a year. It'll change your life. Okay? So one of the things I underlined, which is right here, See, I underlined that right there. It says maybe this will help you frame the situation better. The quantum leap is something you've been keeping from happening. It's not something you have to struggle to make happen. Okay, so cool. That's what he said, right?

I Said, I'm gonna write, I'm gonna read all. I'll read them up here. Being clear on your desired outcome.

Your target is more important than a step by step plan to hit that target. Don't be concerned about the details of how. The details of what and why are your focus. So that was what I thought of as a result of something I read in the book. Right? The doing of a thing is the essence of the how to. You don't learn and then do it. You do it and then learn.

And then I just. The reason I think I said say it better, I'm not sure is one of the beliefs that I have is that most thoughts by most thought leaders and everybody else are what I call underdeveloped. And so one of the things that will make you a much better speaker is to develop finished thoughts that other people started that they didn't finish. I'm going to give you an example.

Abraham Lincoln said that I will prepare myself and perhaps my time will come. Myron golden says, your time is going to come whether you prepare yourself or not. If you're prepared, when your time comes, it will reveal you. If you're not prepared, it will expose you. The question is, are you going to make your life a grand reveal or are you going to make it an expose? See how I finished? Now, I did a couple of things when I did that. I completed a thought which gave you more clarity in me speaking. But I also subtly associated myself with Abraham Lincoln by speaking about myself in the third person.

See how cool that is? They're like, myron's up there with Abraham Lincoln in my book. I didn't say that. That's what you said. Right? Abraham Lincoln says, myron. I didn't say, but I say, because who am I? But if I refer to Myron golden, he's that guy over there on that screen, right? Right. That's different. Right? Okay, so say it better. You can take what other people have said and say it better than them. It's easy. Because for most people in their communication, good enough is good enough. Okay, all right. So then over here I wrote, the Quantum Leap cannot be taught or even learned. It must be discovered in pursuit of a goal. You must accept it, and you can expect it, but you cannot explain how to have it. What? That's so good. That gave me chills. Okay, so do y' all see what I'm doing here? I'm highlighting what he said. What did he say right here? He said, if you have the answer and the structure and certainty up front. It's not a quantum leap.

Right? Anyway, so those are kind of. Oh, that's so good. And so what happens is I have a reaction. If I have a reaction to it, I ask myself, why did I have that reaction? And then I write that down. Okay, so can we go to.

16 word sales letter?

Okay, you will either become great. You either become a great communicator or pay the very high price for not becoming one. Now, I could make that better. Like, that's what I wrote that day. But when I read it just now, I thought of something else. Because I said, you will either become a great communicator or pay the very high price for not becoming one. I could say you can pay the nominal price for learning to become a better communicator or pay the very high price for not learning how to become one. See, that made that. I even made one of my better thoughts better. Okay, two things. I'm going to read it from the book. Two things first all hit number one on the two things first they all in other. He's talking about some songs. I don't even have time to go into that. The first thing in the 16 word sales letter he says is what is the one thing I've got to get people to believe in order for them to say yes to this offer? And then I make sure I answer these 10 questions. That's what the whole 16 word sales letter is about. One belief, 10 questions.

That's it. You figure out what the one belief is, you answer the 10 questions. Sales will be made for me to the tune of millions of dollars. For you could be to the tune of thousands or even millions of dollars. It's literally the blueprint that I use when I'm writing a book. I mean, when I'm writing a sales letter. Hey there, my friend. I just want to share with you one of the best business books you'll ever have the opportunity to read. It's called Boss Moves. Boss does not mean you bossing me around or me bossing you around. It's an acronym that stands for business optimization Success secrets, and this is Business Optim Success secrets from a million dollar roundtable. I have one client who read this book and in two months made $800,000 from what he learned. I want to give you the opportunity to get this book by clicking the link below or just go to bossmovesbook.com and get your copy today. And now back to the video you were watching. Okay. Simplicity is. Oh, is a strength. I'm like, what does that say it's my handwriting. Don't judge me. You can't read yours either. Okay. Simplicity is a strength. The greater the simplicity, the greater the strength. Oh, that's so good. Humans learn concepts through contrast to create more clarity. Reveal contrast early and often. Like when you're talking, when you're teaching contrast. Contrast brings clarity. Okay, so now we're gonna go to Dr. Milton Howard's book. This book right here had me like, bro, you gonna make me mark up every page for real? Like, every word on every page. Why. Why are you tripping? Okay. I'm just saying, you ain't gotta act like that just cause you know, you out in public. Okay, so he's describing this concept called house chambers, right? And I wrote a note on the side for myself. House chambers are places where we store beliefs.

Did I capture it okay? So many people. So he said there's a cable network for almost anything you can think of. And he's talking about the cable networks between.

Between, like, our beliefs. And he's talking about how our beliefs. It's on a different page. Let me see here. He's talking about how our beliefs are connected to.

Our meanings in those beliefs. Like this right here. Like, you got the house chambers, and you got hauntings, and you have hauntings and callings. There are two different types of house chambers or two different types of rooms. And the house chambers are where we store our faith beliefs. I'm gonna put it in my language, doc, so you can. You can. You can correct me. It's. It's fine. But hauntings are where we store our doubt beliefs. Right? So faith and doubt are both beliefs. Faith is belief in the outcome I desire. Doubt is belief in the outcome I don't desire. Right. And sometimes hauntings are memories. And so what we do is we take that memory, we project it on. Like we take our past experience, we project it on the screen of our future. We recreate the past and think we're living in the present. Most people are just living Groundhog Day, right? Anyway, so many people live and lack believing. They lack access to abundance. But what they really lack is awareness. Awareness doesn't guarantee access. It just reveals access. See, most people think like you think that the money you desire to have is money you can't access right now. It's not money you can't access. It's money that you're not aware of your access to. Like, I know this is true because I just. I just see money where other people see nothing. And it's not because I'M so smart. It's just those are the muscles I've developed. You could develop them too. Okay, so.

Let me see here. Go Back to page 26. Okay, so on this bottom note right here, truth is the transmitter of abundance and falsehood is not a lack of truth, but a distortion of truth. Not seeing the complete picture.

Become open to awareness and set intention on truth. Pay attention to the feedback loop and then take action in the direction of your.

Sheesh attention. Analyze the feedback of the reaction and then adjust all the all previous erroneous conclusions and then take more massive action in the direction of your desired intention. So those are just some of the thoughts I got when I was reading your book, Dr. Milton Howard. And then more, and then more and more. And when I get done with it, I'm going to take all those sticky notes and I'm going to go put them in my Google Doc. This is how I read books. So that. And then after I put them in my Google Doc, then I'll go back and memorize them so that I have things to say when I'm talking about a thing. So.

Even though it appears like I'm extremely extemporaneous when I'm speaking, I can be extemporaneous when I'm speaking because I spent so much time with such a deliberate preparation method that I become a prepared messenger, which for me it's easier than me preparing a message and then standing up and having to try to read what I wrote. I just fill myself up with the message. And so a prepared messenger is better than a preference prepared message. Does that make sense? So that's how I read books. And if you'll start reading books that way. I don't read all books this way because I'm not looking to master a skill from every book. Any book that I'm seeking to master a skill from, this is how I read it. Hopefully that makes sense. Hopefully it helps you in your book reading. Get you a little book satchel, get you some highlighters, get you some sticky notes, get you a pen, a little ruler, start highlighting stuff and underlining stuff. And what will happen is you'll begin to think more clearly, you'll begin to communicate more clearly, and your life will start getting better. So hope that helps. In the meantime, in between time, stay blessed by the best. See you in the next video.