Got Guilt Brewing In That Stack of Unfinished Books?

A client some years ago mentioned a pattern they’d fallen into.

Any business or professional development book they started, they typically abandoned about 80% through. They felt it might be a habit worth breaking.

It’s not my place to tell anyone which habits should be broken, but there *is* another viewpoint.

What if you’ve gotten good or useful information already, 80% in? Who says you have to stick around and get more?

With all the good books out there, it’s crazy to think we’d be able to read, absorb and take action on everything in every book we read. If you read one self-development book a month and take action on only one idea from each one, you have 12 new or improved skills in one year.

That’s a LOT.

I’m a skimmer. Love books that have “main points” at the end of each chapter and typically start there and decide whether to read the chapter. Maybe I’ve learned something useful already. Maybe the chapter isn’t particularly relevant or its already a developed skill.

It would be easier to pick out the books on my bookshelf that *have* been read cover to cover, than the ones that haven’t. Just one good idea put into action from each book would be hundreds of improvements.

If you’re an 80%-er or perhaps even less, judge yourself by what you gained, not by what you missed.