Book Ponder

We’ve heard the same excuses repeatedly.  From blaming the education system to using the excuse of not having enough time.  It is eye-opening when you realize how many people are content living their entire life being uneducated.  By educated I don’t mean going back to school and getting your degree, I mean reading books, learning about history, gaining skills, and improving your career capital.

The Resources Are Everywhere

With the power of the internet, there is no longer any excuse to not be learning.  We can listen to audiobooks or educational podcasts while driving, folding laundry, or doing yard work.  We have handheld devices that can store every book ever written with access to them whenever we want. We have free online courses spread across the internet, even some from the world’s top universities.  There is no excuse. 

Great People in History Did Not Have Our Resources

Anytime I hear the excuse of not having enough time, it always brings me back to Abraham Lincoln.  In Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Leadership, she talks about Abraham Lincoln educating himself:

“Left on his own, Abraham had to educate himself. He had to take the initiative, assume responsibility for securing books, decide what to study, become his own teacher. He made things happen instead of waiting for them to happen. Gaining access to reading material proved nearly insurmountable. Relatives and neighbors recalled that Lincoln scoured the countryside to borrow books and read every volume ‘he could lay his hands on.’”

Doris Kearns Goodwin

His determination on educating himself did not stop there, Lincoln biographies are riddled with stories about him going to extreme measures to learn his craft.  From using pieces of wood to take notes to studying logs of old court cases because he could not afford law books. 

Stories from the great depression talk about librarians delivering books on horseback, Theodore Roosevelt once had to bring an assistant just for hauling his books on one of his expeditions, could you imagine if he had a Kindle?  The resources are there we must make the time.

How To Become an Autodidact

To become an autodidact, you must come up with a plan.  The first step I would advise is to spend the first few days tracking where all your time in the day goes.  A useful tool is something like Screen Time where you can track how much time you spend on your phone.  Any time that goes towards mobile games, social media, Netflix, or any other entertainment service that makes money from your time needs to be tracked.  This doesn’t mean you cannot do those things, but they need to have limits and be scheduled for certain times.  Using myself as an example I only allow myself to watch an episode of one of my shows when I am on my lunch break at work or as a leisure activity with my family.  No binging on the couch your entire day off.  Once these limits are set you start to schedule your learning time.  Instead of listening to music on every single drive, you’ll save the music for when you aren’t alone in the car and listen to audiobooks when you are riding solo.  Whenever you are bored with some downtime to kill, you can open an eBook on your phone instead of scrolling through social media.  Instead of watching TV before bed, you should spend 30 minutes reading a book to help your mind relax for sleep. 

It Will Pay Off in the Future

It may take months to notice the difference, but the more time passes when you are focusing on becoming a better learner you will notice small changes in your life.  You will understand current events better and when news is important or just something to pass the time, you will have more to say in social situations and not feel out of the loop or without anything to add to the conversation.  The main one I’ve noticed is understanding books better.  I remember when I first started reading books, I would go read the reviews after and see these elegantly written reviews talking about themes and metaphors and I would be baffled that I missed all of that.  My review would consist of, “the book was pretty good, I’d recommend it.”   After making reading a habit you will understand the different levels of reading and get enjoyment from the classics that may have seemed dull or outdated before. 

Read What You Love, Until You Love to Read

In the beginning, do not overwhelm yourself with reading the most complex books because you will get bored and burned out.  I would recommend picking out a good fiction book that is popular to get you back into enjoying reading.  Once you get a routine going slowly work your way into fiction books in areas that interest you or biographies of people you admire.  It’s a long game but in the end, everyone wins.

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