I just finished the book titled “How to work for yourself” by Bryan Cohen. The book lists 100 ways to make time, energy, and priorities to start a business, book, and blog.
There honestly is nothing earth-shattering or new about the things the Author wrote; but that does mean it’s not worth the read.
What I found is that many times we readers are looking for new, earth-shattering information and revelation from books, forgetting that there is nothing new under the sun. Most Authors just find new ways of saying things that have been said in the past.
The things that move the needle in our lives and create the most change are simple truths and hacks we’ve known in the past that we just need reminded of, and most importantly, things we need to IMPLEMENT.
Eyinimofe
While there are 100+ things the Author talked about, If I try to remember and implement them all at once I will end up doing none at all, and that’s what usually trips people up.
If you try and go everywhere at the same time, you end up going nowhere.
So I decided to focus on one thing and actually APPLY IT. One thing was his suggestion on how to be consistent with writing. He claimed that having a goal of i.e 500 words daily can help greatly in creating the habit of writing.
In order to successfully do this daily, He gives a strategy on how to actually write.
1. Write the first things that come to mind. Literally pour it out as it comes to you.
2. Don’t read it as you type it and do not try to correct grammatical errors or rephrase things as that will definitely slow you down.
I followed the Authors advice to write the first draft of this post and I can say it makes a lot of sense. When I was done with the first draft of just poring it out from my mind to my word document, I realized I had written over 500 words in one sitting. They were full of a lot of typos, but it doesnt matter. I basically wrote this post 10 minutes after I was done reading the book.
Even though He did not mention this point in the book I think that it is absolutely worthless to read, a whole book, more so a 700+ pages book, and not have a major takeaway from it.
At least in those self-help/business-related books or Articles, you should at least have something that you decide to start doing or stop doing as a result of the information just consumed. You don’t need to create a 100-page document on all the things you can and will implement from the piece of content you just consumed. It honestly can just be one thing.
Just start with one thing and when you are done implementing that you can move on to something else.
I added one extra hack to his writing tip though. I knew that if I saw the error while writing I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from pressing the backspace on my laptop so I decided not to look up at my screen till I was done typing and ready to do the draft edit. I legit looked down at my keypad for the duration of tying the whole first draft.
So writing this blog post was the first actionable step I took from starting and finishing the book.
Apart from the above though, there are a few note-worthy things that for sure stuck out in the book that are worth mentioning.
- Create goals around every area of your life, from business goals to health, relationship, finances, etc. What this does is that no part of your life is left behind. No matter how little the progress is in one area, at least there is some progress.
- Try not to have a list of half-abandoned projects everywhere. It’s best for morale and for future progress to start and finish one thing i.e if you want to write a book, try to finish one book, and that will give you the fuel to start and finish the second, third, fourth book, etc.
- Do a 30-day challenge. You can decide to write a blog post every day for 30 days or maybe wake up at a particular time every day for 30 days, or make 5 cold calls to 5 business prospects every day. It’s up to you to decide what you want your challenge to be based on. It might be best to choose a challenge based on your goals. For example, if you intend to write a book, by the end of X quarter, writing daily will definitely bring you closer to achieving that goal.
- Plan your day from the night before. I especially love this because it means I enter each day with purpose and direction. I also think it will be a little harder to keep pressing the snooze button on your alarm when your body already knows there are a bunch of tasks to be accomplished for the day. If you already have goals in an area, planning your day a day before ensures you can be deliberate about making sure certain tasks that’ll move you closer to achieving your goals are represented.
- Lastly, the author advised that if you have an area you are struggling with the most, that should be what you read about first. Sounds like a no-brainer right? But many of Us do not let our most pressing needs dictate what we read first. I.e having financial issues but reading only romance novels instead of finance books. If you are struggling with marketing, it obviously, makes sense to read books on marketing.
There are basically 100 different areas the author touched on that can help you and me improve our lives, relationships, and business(s). The book is a light read, no plenty of big grammar or complicated concepts and you can definitely finish reading it in a day if you create the time.
If you do read this book and you found it interesting, I’d love to know in the comment section below. I’d also love to know your major takeaway from this post and that one thing you plan to either start or stop doing.
This book is available to buy on Amazon via this link
Thanks for sticking with me till the end. Till the next post. Stay Insightful!
She believes that Africans should tell their own stories.
Her Life Mantra(s): "Whether you do it brave or scared, just do it" "Find a Way"
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