 How many of you, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months after reading a book, actually remember what was in that book? I remember when, I remember, I remember, or better yet, how many of you actually implemented what you learned? It's Christian, the work from Anywhere Guy, and today, we're going to talk about how to read a book and actually remember and implement what was in that book. Let's get it. All right, so in the entrepreneurship community, books are either fetishized as being the greatest thing ever, and you should read one to two books a week, or the complete opposite, they're called out as procrastination, as a way to avoid doing the actual work. And like anything, they're somewhere in the middle. Reading books is one of the best things you could possibly do. You're getting 10 years of experience from someone in a couple hours of your time. But the thing is that knowledge is not power. Knowledge put into action is power. That's what's going to get your results. And if you just burn through books week after week, and you never implement it, or you never even remember the principles that you have learned, then you're not going to get much out of those books. You are just killing time and entertaining yourself. Now, if you're reading business books or nonfiction in order to improve yourself or get better, then we need to use repetition. If we don't use repetition, we're not going to remember what we read. So I read books in a certain way that allow me to not only remember that, but put it into action and continuously remind myself of those things that I learned. So when I fall off track, I can get right back on. So I'm going to show you three ways to read books that's going to allow you to implement what you learn and get that compound interest on your knowledge. So way number one is the light version. So the first time I read a book, I'll read through it and I'll highlight things that stand out to me. And if something really jumps out and I think I really need to learn this this year, I need to remember it. I need to implement this principle. Then I'll pull that highlight out and I'll put it in my notes for the year. And I have a document, which is my notes from all my books for the year, just the most top 10 percent, most very important passages that mean something to me that I have to implement in my life. And every morning or every other morning, I'll read through that whole document. If you're a cynic, if you're a pessimist, you don't need to click here. Don't worry about it. And then I started over every year. So by December 31st, this list is incredibly long. It takes 15 or 20 minutes to read through. But on January 1st, that resets and it only takes a second because I only have to highlight from that day. So that's number one. If I'm reading a book by myself, I'm going to highlight the things that matter to me and then I'm going to pull them out and put them in a document and then read them over and over again. So I remember those and I'm reminded of them because our brains and our actions in life, they're like a rocket ship headed for the moon. It's continuously going off course, and we need to constantly course correct if we want to get to our destination. Now, the next step up from that level two reading for me is if I really want to implement a book, I'm going to read it in a book club. And that's because actually sharing and that social interaction that we have around the concepts in the book and then also hearing it from somebody else's perspective, that's going to help me ingrain that knowledge in my brain and not forget it. And so the way that we're going to do that is I'm going to take my notes on the whole book and then when I have a book club, we're going to go around the circle and we're each going to go over our notes. And the cool thing about this is we're all going to interpret the book differently and you can see the point of view of somebody else and you can see how they pulled out different things than you did. So that's an awesome way to share what you've learned. And one of the important parts about this is that you actually take notes and at the end you summarize those notes and you go over them. So you're kind of doing this comprehensive overview of what you just learned and reminding yourself of everything that happened. Now, at the end of the year, we did a yearly review and we actually went over, you know, our top five books for the year and our notes from those books and what we actually implemented and what we didn't. And it's kind of surprising, number one, how much I forgot about those books and two, how much I had implemented but didn't realize where I learned those things from. But going back over the notes, I go, Oh yeah, I did learn that thing this year. I guess I got it from that book and I had forgotten all about it because this was just a part of my daily routine and my habits now, even though I'd first learned about it in that book. So the annual review and then that individual review of the book is awesome. Now, the third way that I like to read a book that probably is going to make it stick the most is teaching that book to other people. So actually reading that book, taking notes on it, implementing it and then being able to teach that lesson to somebody else, seeing how they react, correcting how I'm teaching that until they fully understand it and doing that over and over. When you learn to teach something, you have to break it down into its most simple form and you're going to be forced to understand those principles on their most basic level. And when you understand the fundamentals of something is when you truly understand it. If it takes you hours and hours to explain or if you have to go back and look at your notes over and over again, you haven't internalized that concept yet. So actually teaching the principles as well as putting them into action in your actual life and then using real life examples to teach. Here's how I took this principle from this book. Here's how I implemented it here or the results or here's what happened that I didn't expect. That's when you're truly going to understand that material. So if you're the kind of person who reads books because you like books or you think you should read books, you actually want to implement what you've learned. So you're not just entertaining yourself book after book, especially if you're reading business books. I mean, what's the point if you're not implementing? Then try these three methods. You know, number one is take notes and put it in a doc and then review that doc on a periodic basis. Method two is have a book club and actually share your notes with other members of the book club and three is actually teach that book to somebody else. It could be your friend, your parents or relatives where you could sort of YouTube channel and actually teach what you learn in books. That's part of the reason that I have this channel is so that I can teach things for your benefit as well as my own so that I get to internalize the concepts that I'm working on in my own life. Somebody once said to me that which we need to learn ourselves is what we teach. So a lot of people end up teaching what in the first place they had to learn themselves. That's how they learn it. That's how they internalized it. And in the process, they got to share that knowledge with others. So I'd love to hear in the comments. What is a favorite book that you've read in the last 12 months and did you actually implement? Do you actually remember what's in that book? And I'll share one last bonus tip here. Every single year I have a list of books that I reread that I read before. And when I go through those books and I see my old highlights, it always surprises me that my new highlights are completely different. So new person, you're going to read that book through a whole new lens and it's going to be like you're reading it for the first time. So those all time classics that you get so much out of, don't be afraid to go back and reread those every six months or every 12 months. Or even every couple of years. Throw in the comments. What's the best book in the last 12 months and the number one lesson you've actually implemented? That's all for today. It's Christian. The work from whenever I see you on the next one.