Do you make this mistake with your professional development?
Are you attracted to the new shiny object? Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am big on professional development. Heck, this blog is about professional development. Recently, I was seriously thinking about going to Minneapolis to take Learning Strategies' PhotoReading course, but things weren't coming together smoothly. You know how that is?
I tried everything to convince myself that I needed to take that course. I told myself that although I had learned about how to read syntopically from How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler, I still needed to learn the process from Learning Strategies. I told myself that I had to take the Genius Code course because it will allow me to read faster and use my whole brain. What things do you tell yourself to convince you that you need the next shiny object?
I am not saying that the PhotoReading course isn't good. In fact, I purchased the home study program, which usually sells for just over $500. Three years ago, I purchased a speed reading software. Three years ago I attended Iris Reading speed reading course. Seven years ago, I purchased a lucid dreaming meditation audio program, which does what Genius Code does. I have speed reading bookmarklets on my computer. I purchased two different speed reading apps for my smart phone. I learned that the Swedes are among the fastest readers in the world because as children, they had to read sub-titles to understand the TV programs from the West (sub-titles promote speed reading). Göran Askeljung wrote BrainRead, which teaches the process, and I purchased that book 10 months ago. I am reading faster than I was three years ago, but not as fast as I should be considering all the shiny objects I have in my speed reading toolkit.
The big mistake I made? I have been so busy collecting speed reading resources that I haven't invested enough time in using them to read faster. Can you relate to this? You are so busy collecting resources to acquire a new skill that you forget to actually do the work needed to acquire the skills.
I realized that I am trying to do too many things and need to step back and evaluate what's important to me now. I un-enrolled from two courses because I need the time to focus on increasing the speed at which I read. Speed reading is a critical skill to have today because a 2012 study by the McKinsey Global Institute office workers on average spent 5.6 hours “reading and answering emails and processing written information” are showing that each of us has to read for at least four hours each day just to keep up with information critical for our work. Anyone who expects to succeed, to get promoted at work, has to read faster and increase their level of understanding of the material. There is no way around it.
Acquiring my informal liberal arts education is important to me. Reading faster and increasing my level of understanding will go a long way in achieving this goal in the time I have set aside, so I have created a checklist of the things that I have to do each day to read faster, and before I go to bed I start checking off activities. How can you lie to yourself when you have a checklist staring you in the face? You cannot! I have done this for only a week and am taking it seriously. To make the process simple, when I can, I speed read information that I have to read for work. The way this works is that I have speed reading bookmarklets on my browser toolbar, specifically, Spreed, Reasy and Squirt, and I use them to read online information. I use Squirt and Spreed the most. I am reading BrainRead – Effective Speed Reading – Reading like the Swedish
slowly and doing all the exercises. I am also listening to my lucid dreaming meditation mp3 before I go to sleep. For now, I commit to doing these things for 40 days to develop the habit. By then, I should see a notable increase in my reading people and level of comprehension.
What does this mean for you? Think about the critical skills that you have to develop in the next three years to make yourself more valuable and marketable, work toward acquiring those skills today. Additionally, have you been collecting information on a certain topic because you are interested in it, or because you have to stay on top of it for work? Have you been doing more collecting than reading? Spend 15 minutes each day reading the information that you have already collected, and if the information is online, consider using one of the speed reading bookmarklets that I have mentioned.
Don't make this mistake with your professional development! Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Liked this post? Share it and subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more! If you’re new to the blog, visit the Start Here page for my pillar posts.
Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that's why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people.
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