Read a Little Substance Every Day
Posted: Wednesday, September 02, 2009
by James Cavalluzzi
Consolute, LLC
Today more than ever, keeping up to date in your field is essential to success. We all must continue to impact the bottom line to demonstrate our worth to the organization. If we are to keep our careers moving forward, we must be productive and resourceful. There are several ways to achieve this: attend seminars, take college classes here and there or even continue our education by pursuing advanced degrees, but one simple and inexpensive solution is right at our fingertips ...reading.
Reading pertinent information can put you on the path to solving an immediate problem in your workplace or some future need that is yet to arise. Though reading a short article in a trade publication will probably not solve a particular problem you may be experiencing at the time, it can give you significant insight into relevant issues affecting your business, and thus, point you in the direction needed to successfully address those issues. Reading useful information can alert you to the latest trends in your field and shed light on those ares you may need to strengthen. You may suddenly realize the usefulness of an upcoming seminar or convention that will provide the necessary tools to address your concerns.
Reading is an effective and simple means by which you can gain a great deal of knowledge. Reading doesn't discriminate, you can read at your own pace, on your own time, and you can read what you want. Anyone can do it; most of do, but how many of us read something of substance, something that will give us a leg up on our competition. Just take a look around during your lunch break, or when you're sitting in that waiting room. You will probably see the majority of people reading something. Unfortunately, it will most often be something that was lying around the room: newspapers or magazines about sports, celebrities or the like. How many people are reading something that taxes the mind or addresses a specific need in your workplace?
A 3 credit college course will, on average, take up about 6 hours of your time per week (3 hours of formal instruction and 3 hours of preparation and study) for 16 weeks which is 96 hours. So we can use 100 hours as a reasonable estimate of the time invested in one college course. If you were to read for just one hour each day this would equate to 365 hours per year, which is approximately 3.5 college courses. We are all aware that simply reading is not equivalent to formal college instruction, but you cannot argue with the fact that if you were to continually read something of substance you will be much farther ahead than someone who does not.
If you read something relevant to your profession on a regular basis you will gain a wealth of knowledge. With little effort, minimal investment, and a few spare hours each week, you can gain enough expertise and insight to solve those day to day issues and to move your company forward and ahead of the competition. So during your next lunch period or while you're sitting in that waiting room, try reading something of substance and increase your effectiveness.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)James no voice fighting against the widely publicized trend of the reduction of reading should go unrewarded. Nicely argued and I second it!Please log in to respond to this comment.
Great article. Well done.I agree with you I'm an huge reader and am amazed at how much you can learn in a short time with very little effort.Please log in to respond to this comment.
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