The Invisible Mentor

Archive for March 23rd, 2010

Since last week I have been including tools to assist you with your professional development. The Reading & Listening Plan Process has been taken from The Invisible Mentor Toolkit, which is packed with a lot of tools and processes to enhance continuous learning. The Toolkit is also designed to walk you through the process of choosing your five invisible mentors.

1. Invest in a good speed-reading course
2. To get tips on how to get the most out of your reading, read
   1. How to Read A Book
   2. Book-Lover
   3. The Reading of Books
      
   4. How to Read and Why
      
   5. The Art of Thought, (The Thinker’s library)
      
   6. The Thinker’s Guides (Center for Critical Thinking)
3. Set a daily reading goal and schedule it into your day
   1. Try to read about 40 to 50 pages a day, which will allow you to read about a book each week
   2. Get up earlier and/or stay up later if necessary
   3. If your aim is to attain mastery in a topic within three years you have to apply the necessary discipline
4. What to read each month
   1. Choose another two from the list of books that influenced people profiled in Tales of People Who Get It and the CEOs featured in the New York Times article
   2. Have a combination of fiction and non-fiction and every now and again read a children’s book “just because”
   3. Refer to the presentation How to Build Intellectual Power for a possible reading lists
How To Build Intellectual Power
View more presentations from Ambeck Enterprise.
5. Each week listen to an interview and a speech by or about one of your invisible mentors from the list in your Self-Discovery Worksheet
6. Join a Book-of-the-Month Club. Two suggestions are:
   1. Book of the Month Club http://www.bomc.com
   2. Quality Paperback Book Club http://www.qpb.com
7. Subscribe to business book summaries and use them as a guide to decide which books are worth reading. Two good ones are:
   1. Audio-Tech Business Book Summaries http://store.audiotech.com
   2. Soundview Executive Book Summaries http://www.summary.com
8. Make professional development a fun time for the family. And, if you have a long commute to work, invest in:
   1. Unabridged books on CDs and tapes to listen to during the commute
   2. Audio programs that your family can listen to during family time or on road trips
9. Create a form to record information on the books that you have read, for easy reference.

Click on the comment link below and leave a note for me. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN. I can assist you with that too. Visit my sales page for resources such as The Invisible Mentor Toolkit to assist you in acquiring wisdom from a distance. For free white papers click here.

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