Seriously. Read A Book.

“If you want the best the world has to offer, offer the world your best.” – Oprah Winfrey

When it comes to life, I don’t really believe in coincidences. I believe that everything happens for a reason because it’s meant to happen the way it does. That’s not to say that we always like how it goes down. Every step you take is part of your journey towards self-fulfillment. It’s all part of your unique story.

This year I made the decision to focus more on my personal growth. While I know it sounds easy, it’s not as simple as it often seems. This is one area that is super easy to put off. Let me explain:

The day gets away from you and now it’s almost bedtime. You realize you haven’t picked up that book yet or hit play on your iPod to listen to that audio you’d been meaning to listen to since you dropped the kids off at school at 8:45 this morning. But at this point in the day you’re so buggered the last thing you want to do is pick up a book. I mean you’re sooooo tired you’ll probably fall asleep while reading so you’re probably not going to get anything from it anyways and you’ll definitely need to read that part again tomorrow when you’re more awake. So you tell yourself you’ll read an extra chapter tomorrow or you’ll listen to an extra audio to make up for what you missed today. You leave the book on the table and head upstairs to brush your teeth and collapse into bed. The next few days pass in pretty much the same fashion and the next thing you know 5 months have slid right on by and your book is covered in so much dust it almost got tossed during house cleaning. By this point, you owe yourself so much back-reading that in order to make up for it, you’ll need to read about 20 books and listen to 100 hours of audios. This sounds far too overwhelming so you decide ‘Meh, no big deal. I’m pretty awesome anyways, I don’t need any personal growth.’ And just like that, your focus from growing you and your mind is out the window.

You can laugh about it (mostly because it sounds so damn familiar), but I know that somewhere there is a person (or more accurately people) with a fabulous collection of books just waiting to be opened. I know this has happened to more people than will ever admit it. It’s life. It happens. But it doesn’t have to be.

In our daily lives, we are ruled by our distractions. There are so many to choose from. Refereeing an argument between kids over a flashlight, ringing phones, that load of laundry that has been sitting there for 3 days that MUST be done now, TVs, the survey from some random company that showed up in the mail, computers, tablets, etc. It’s ironic how we spend our best hours of our best days doing the things that really do nothing for us. Now that’s not to say that some of these things don’t need done, I’m just saying that they’re likely not always as urgent as we make them out to be.

This is why I say this whole focusing on personal growth thing can be harder than it sounds. Because it’s easy to leave it for another day. It doesn’t seem nearly as urgent as everything else does. And at the end of it all you’re only accountable to you and, because you’re pretty awesome already, it falls to the bottom of the priority list.

You have to decide if you are ready to make that commitment to yourself. You need to know that you are worth the investment of your time. As you grow and your mind expands, the world around you begins to change. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Those that invest that time and energy in growing themselves through continual learning live rich and full lives. Seriously. I’m in the midst of experiencing it.

With my focus on personal growth this year, I made a commitment to myself to read at least one book a month that would help expand my mind. I kicked off my reading campaign with Oprah’s new book “What I Know For Sure” and it was a great place to start. She shared stories and experiences, learnings that were personal to her but totally relatable. She opened my mind.

Just like that, I knew I’d be on track. I was so proud of myself for putting my learning as a priority. There were definitely days where I could have let myself be and stay distracted, but I made a promise to myself (more than a few for this year actually!) and there was no way I was going to let me down. I want the best this world has to offer and in order to get that, I need to give my best every single day. The only way to give my best is to be my best. And the only way to be my best is by knowing who and what I am and evolving into the most spectacular me I’ve ever known.

I heard a saying long ago that nothing in your life will ever be bigger than you are. So be bold and grow. Grow so big that you can move mountains. Be big. Live big.