The Power of Paper: What Digital Self-Help Can’t Provide
Many people can’t wait to finish high school because they think that their learning is finally done. People who want to go far in life and achieve big goals, they very quickly realize that they need to keep growing their mental and emotional capacity to get there. With the age of information and technology it is now easier more than ever to find self-growth seminars, podcasts, books, Youtube channels and more. These are all helpful and can be utilized to grow ourselves daily. Even though there is this massive pool to pull from, nothing can replace the power of a good book. Not an eBook, I’m talking about a physical, hold in your hands book.
Before you start listing all of the types of learners out there, it won’t change the reason that a book is still the most impactful one. Audio books, podcasts, and Youtube videos all have their benefits. We can put one on as we are driving, cooking dinner or working, and this allows us to at least have some good information to ponder instead of music or the background noises. On an impact scale of 1 to 3 with 1 being the lowest, I would put these types of audio input at the bottom level 1.
When we listen to our learning, information is going by very quickly. With the exception of a story, many bits and pieces of information is briefly heard but not enough to really slow down and grasp the deepness of it. There have been times when I’ve heard some phrase that was so profound that I had to rewind 10 seconds to hear it again and pause the video to reflect on its depth. In reality the whole podcast was that impactful, but when we are playing it for its background benefits, we really aren’t in a position to keep pausing a video to reflect or write something down.
Level 2 on our impact scale would be live seminars. Here we usually will have a notebook or electronic way of taking notes as we watch the speaker. Many times a speaker will repeat his key points, or pause after some important statement. The act of taking notes helps our brain to hear it again as well as see it in print. We also have the ability of reflection, days and weeks later as we read over the notes for continued impact.
Level 3 is the most surprising one to many people. We think that in this digital age we should turn away from physical print items. The majority of people that have made it successful in life, financially, relationally, in leadership and in learned skills have a library of physical self-growth books. A good self-growth book could last us from an hour to many hours of reading. What we may not realize is that the author of that book spent months and sometimes years compiling their ideas and experience.
After that they spent months writing and rewriting their book to make sure they chose the most impactful words and concepts to really share their wisdom. When you now look at your bookshelf of self-growth success books, it’s not just hours of reading time you are looking at, it is years and years and years of wisdom you are looking at. What took someone half their lifetime to learn and discover you will get to learn in a fraction of that time.
The first reason a physical book is level 3 on the impact scale is because, as you are reading this concentrated formula to success in life, you are able to stop at any moment to write down notes and to reread a phrase to make sure you understood it fully. You are not doing something else like driving or cooking, instead you are sitting down with 100% attention to this concentrated book of wisdom.
The second reason this is a level 3 is, when we’ve read a book and then a year later read it again, it is like we are reading it for the first time. You’ll find nuggets of gold that you will swear wasn’t there the first time, and the things that impacted you to the core last time, now don’t seem so eye opening. Why is this? It is because you are not the same person as you were last time. Hopefully you have grown and moved forward. Also you are no longer in the same situation as last time. Your struggles, perception, frustrations and experience are all in a different place. That is why new things will reveal themselves on the second and third time reading a book.
This is why we should never use a highlighter in a book. When you’ve done this, it is hard to see different things as you read it a second time. Something to try instead is to take the pages of your note taking and leave them folded in the book. Then, when you are needing a quick recap, you will have them handy with the applied book, and when you read it again for the 2nd or 3rd time now you can see how differently it is helping you this time around.
If you’ve been on a self-growth journey of any length you will hear some of the same books being listed for recommended reading. Books like “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie, and “No Limits” by John C. Maxwell, just to name a few. Maybe start with one of these. Whatever book you choose, just make sure it is a physical book. By the time you finish one book, make sure to have your next one planned and ready to go.
As you watch your bookshelf of success principles grow, so will your capacity to live your biggest life. Knowledge and growth is a lifelong goal that we should never achieve until our last day on Earth, so keep growing.