Unlocking Your Potential: A Guide to Getting the Most Out of Self-Help Books
BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SELF HELP BOOKS
“In the end, we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. Isn’t that true? We have always been stressed to retain what we study, but have we ever thought why? And no, the answer isn’t to pass exams. Answer is that we must retain information in order to apply it, and without its application, knowledge is nothing but a weapon that can’t be fired. For beginners who have just started reading self-help, they often focus on the strategy of reading as many books as possible. But is that really the best utilization? Keep reading this blog to find out.
The crucial world of Self-Help: how to start?
Imagine, you woke up on a sunny day, and you thought, “I just saw a post about motivation, I gotta start reading self-help books and levelling myself up.” Or you are just a curious person who wants to upskill in his area of niche and start gaining knowledge by any means possible. In such a scenario, you must know how to start and where to start. Keep the following pointers in mind before starting with your next self-help book-
1. Be very Picky. Only pick a book which suits your interest or field of study.
Choosing a book is one of the first steps you must proceed very cautiously on. If you have no interest in finance, choosing “Rich dad poor dad” as your first read won’t be a good choice. Try starting with a simple one, such as Atomic Habits, for example.
2. Start with small and easy books first, then move on to complicated ones.
If this is your first few stints with Self-help, try to pick a small and simple book, rather than choosing a big and complicated one, as it will discourage you from actually finishing the book. Books such as “Ego is the enemy” or “Ikigai” can be a good choice. You can buy the bestseller book on our website.
3. Always keep a pencil or a pen with you to highlight important lines and paragraphs in the book
You cannot overstress this point. There is no use reading a book if you are just gonna forget all the points later on. For example, when reading a writer such as Robert Greene, it makes sense to underline as those books involve lots of data and learnings you can take. You can buy his books online in India.
4. After finishing a chapter, go over the highlighted lines again for revision.
5. Ponder over what you read.
Again, this is a very important note to take into consideration. As you read, ponder over what you read to grasp the actual meaning of what the author is trying to convey to you. Note down your observations, and also think over what you read after you have put down the book. For example, in the book “The courage to be disliked’’ by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, the book goes into chapters in its lesson with anecdotes. Buy Self Help Books Online on our website. You must underline every important lesson and go over it after finishing the chapter.
6. Arrogant people never learn. Submit to the writer and learn with an open mind.
People whose minds are closed never learn. Leave your prejudices and stereotypes outside to actually grasp the benefits of self-help books. Submit to the author and listen to his argument in an unbiased manner.
7. Note down all crucial points in a notebook, so it can be revisited later.
Most often mistakes made by beginners in reading self help books is that they think that it would be best to read as many books as they can in as less time as possible and they will start getting successful from the next day. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Read and note down as you study, so you can revise and revisit these concepts later when you forget them. If you aren’t carrying out this exercise, it would be worthless to read self-help books.
8. Revisit your notebook or diary every Month, so you don’t forget to apply all the principles you have learnt.
Revision is necessary so you can reflect on your progress even if you apply the studied concepts in practical life or not. No use in reading “rich dad poor dad” and start wasting money and not investing it the second you put down the book. Focus on quality rather than quantity.
9. Make sure you create an environment to study.
Reading is a habit, and not habit comes when your environment opposes it. Calibrate your environment so it becomes easy for you to sit to read. For example, keep your book on the front table, so it remains within an eye’s view. Buy self-help books for cheap prices on our website. Also, when sitting to read, make sure to get rid of distractions. This has also been mentioned in the book “Atomic Habits”.
10. Read across multiple divisions as you get acquainted with the genre
As you get acquainted with the genre, try to diversify your reads, as books reach a level of knowledge saturation in time. Read multiple dimensions to form a better knowledge base and evaluate the stance of multiple viewpoints expressed in the books. You can buy bestselling books online on our website.
