Have you ever taught someone how to read? It’s amazing how a mind starts to put together letters, shapes and sounds before making them into words. When you are teaching someone (usually the very young) how to read it’s incredible when they first start to ‘get it’. So once we’ve ‘got it’, when and why do we start to lose it?

Your ability to read is one of the most amazing gifts you have. However, in many cases, it’s also one of the most underused gifts. The challenge is that we have so much to read just to get through our days, by the time we have a moment to ourselves can we really be bothered?

I was very fortunate to be introduced to a remarkable man called David Brown, who challenged me with a life-changing question: ‘What are you doing right now for your own personal development?’ It was one of those incredible turning points in my life. I asked: ‘What should I do first?’ He answered: ‘Read.’

David Brown went on to explain that you can gather a person’s life’s work in a book. It may only take you a few days to read what it has taken them a lifetime to learn. The book you are reading now has taken me two years from the original idea to completion and you can read it over a weekend.

Reading is amazing!

Then the next stage is to get you hooked on reading and, as this is the personal development section, I suggest you begin by reading some books that will make you better.

How to Have a Brilliant Life is designed as an ‘easy read’. Short chapters, lots of ‘how tos’, punchy lists and dozens of ideas for you to use immediately. I’m guessing that its simplicity is one of the reasons you picked it up. So find other similar books: Richard Templar’s fabulous ‘Rules of . . .’ books would be an excellent place to start.

I’m often asked for recommendations on what to read. We have a page on www.michaelheppell.com that simply lists books I’ve recently read and would recommend. Check it out or take a look at my publisher’s website www.pearsoned.co.uk/bookshop for dozens of suggestions.

Who do you admire?

Perhaps one of the best and most interesting ways to improve your personal development through reading is to read biographies and autobiographies of people you admire. A word of warning: autobiographies tend to tell you how wonderful a person is (maybe because it is written by them?) and biographies tend to go for a ‘warts and all’ approach. There will be parts in both that you can take with a pinch of salt.

Trade press and specialist publications

There must be a magazine for every subject on the planet from The Teapot Collector to World of Maggots Monthly. I’m sometimes found open-mouthed in newsagents thinking, ‘Who buys these?’

As you begin to read more, you may feel the need for more variety. What could you pick up to stimulate your brain?

Reading from the web

The biggest reading and research resource on the planet is known as the world wide web. The challenge is that 99.999% is of no interest to you whatsoever. So, you ask a search engine to help you. I remember many years ago that a search engine was described to me with this delightful metaphor: ‘It’s like a librarian who has a vast knowledge of the books on every shelf. When you ask them for a book they’ll take you, in less than a second, and show you every book on that subject.’ What a lovely description. What they didn’t tell me was that the librarian is often happy to take a ‘bung’ for recommending one book over another and the content can range from brilliant to abysmal in a click.

The ‘read’ file

One of the challenges of being busy is finding the time to read articles, letters, features and the general ‘stuff’ that comes into our lives. I have a clear plastic file with the word ‘READ’ printed on the front. Anything I’d like to find time to read gets ripped out and popped into that file. When I find myself with some time in hand, usually at an airport or on a train, I take out my ‘READ file’ and work through the contents.

How to read and get the most out of reading a personal development book

• Buy books, don’t borrow them. Books are great value and, as you’ll see, to get the most out of a book you need to personalise it.
• Read the book with a highlighter and pen in hand. Highlight the paragraphs and sentences that have the biggest impact. Write notes in the margins.
• Build your own library. You can build a library of hundreds of books over the years and give yourself an extraordinary reference collection.
• Go back to favourite books. It’s amazing what you see when you read a book twice. You could start with this one!
• If you like a book, leave a small review on Amazon or other book websites. If you know you are going to review a book, you read it more carefully.
• Share books you like by buying them for friends as gifts and saying: ‘I loved this book, wanted to share it with someone I’m close to and I thought of you.’
• Write to the author. If you like a book or if you want to find out more about their thinking, send them a note. You’ll be surprised at how pleased authors are to receive your comments.

Write a book

One of the most common goals I hear is a person’s desire to write a book of their own. If it’s true that ‘everyone has a book inside them’, isn’t it time you got yours out?