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Ive failed. Yes, I set a goal at the beginning of this year and I have failed. I wanted to read a book a week and that target hasnt been met. There are a couple of things you should know. One, I am not an avid reader. Id even go so far as to say, I am not a reader. And two, I have a problem retaining what I read. This is the main reason why #1 is valid. I can read a page and you can ask me what I just read and youll get a blank stare. As a small child I read books at a very elementary level. As I progressed in school and was required to read the various novels and classics, I read maybe a chapter or three and then when I arrived in class the next day, Id ask other students what the book was about just before the test. After they provided their synapsis, I felt I had a grasp of the story and lo and behold, a great big D or sometimes F appeared in a frightful red ink at the top of my test paper. This led to my adult reading being kept to a minimum such as quotes, or brief magazine articles.

My two sons are both reading a tremendous amount in school and on their own. My older son has literally read hundreds of books before his teen years and received recognition and awards through school due to his achievement. I have been inspired to read by the influence of my two children. So, in January of this year, I set a very lofty goal of reading a book a week. Yes, from 0 to 52! Because I have difficulty retaining the material, I take notes and this has helped me tremendously by emphasizing the points of interest. When I am finished, I type my notes into a document so that I have them all in one place that I can do a word search to find particular content I wish to revisit at a later time.

This is no news to many of you but books can be very educational. I have learned extraordinary things this year across an array of topics. Many of the books Ive read are business related and others are purely recreational. I have covered, politics, marketing, customer service, faith, autobiographies, success, failure, and even coffee. I now have a wealth of new strategies to apply socially, personally, as well as in business. In future posts, I am intending to give a brief description of many of the books I have read calling out two or three points of interest that may be helpful to those reading this.

As I fell behind, sometimes I would read two books a week to get caught up. Some books had fewer pages (most are averaging 200-300 pages) or were less interesting and didnt require as much note taking. Sometimes I have read 50-75 pages at a time to stay on top of it. This has been a drastic shift in focus for me and although the pace has been rigorous, I look forward to continuing to learn new things from reading and expanding my mind long after this year has come to a close.