4 Commits: Optimal Value Reading for Engaging Screenagers
4 Commits: Optimal Value Reading for Engaging Screenagers
When asked most Engaging Screenagers (aren’t we all) says, “Reading, I’m a good reader, so we don’t need to go there.”
One day back when I was an undergraduate, I was taking my friend, Mike, to the airport.
As we were going to the airport, my friend was telling me about how his father who was the CEO of his own company, loved to “read like a banshee.”
On the way home after dropping Mike at the airport, I was looking at my life and saw little interest or ability in reading and then felt low because I told myself I’d never be a CEO.
About 8 years later, I was feeling cramped living in The City, so I had moved into a distant suburb of San Francisco to enjoy the manufactured niceness of the burbs.
Commit 1) Time
Every day I rode the train for at least (frequent delays) 38 minutes each way (about 80 minutes per day on average.)
Remember this was before we had screens in our pockets.
On the first day I sat there doing nothing all the way to work and returning from work (junk engagement.)
There was so much pain in that (lack of) engagement that I determined to find something to do, so I tied several different activities and found reading most engaging.
I started reading popular novels at first as my ADD prevented (or so I thought) me from reading anything deeper.
After while, I did however start reading the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper every now and then when I didn’t feel like reading my novels.
Commit 2) Difficulty
Gradually however, I began to read the newspaper cover to cover and even picked up news magazines, and yes, I repeated this process with news magazines too ( I thought I was reaching the top of my optimal engagement potential, but…)
After about 6 months, for Christmas, my friend Matt Shelton gave me a subscription to Fortune Magazine.
Although I brought the magazine with me ‘just in case,’ I rarely read it at all, as the Fortune magazine as it was too ‘nonfiction’ (It was out of my comfort zone.) for me to read for long periods.
A strange thing was happening though, because I started reading a little more here and there.
After a 4-5 more months, I found myself reading the Fortune magazine cover to cover.
That wasn’t the only heavy reading I was doing either, as time went on I was reading everything I could find to read (now I thought I was reaching the top of my reading optimal engagement potential, but…)
Commit 3) Variety
I remember one Saturday morning I had found a book and was more excited about reading that book than going on a mountain bike ride and that‘s serious.
One day I was talking to a sales friend of mine and what she said has stuck with me for all of these years, “People who commute to the city are very well read and can talk about most everything.”
Because I hadn’t been tracking my growth, I hadn’t realized it, but I was becoming quite knowledgeable about many subjects that I “thought I knew well” in the past, but really hadn’t known them well at all.
Commit 4) Diligence
From that time in my life onward, I have read about 40 books every year on average.
Then it was different as I understood the subjects much more thoroughly.
This deeper understanding of the world around me definitely helped me go into Graduate school with a stronger knowledge base.
But more importantly, I learned to read well.
As Zig Ziglar said, “Anything worth doing is worth to doing poorly until you can do it well.”
Yes, I already knew how to read, but now I really new how to real well.
Also, I realized my image of my potential (junk engagement) was so much lower than I had ever imagined, and I kept my reality in line with my limited image of myself.
But that vision of my potential changed when I put myself in a position where I found little choice but to read and improve (optimal engagement.)
How many other people achieve well below their potential simply because their vision of themselves is so low?
As my research in ADD has shown, many ADD learners’ brains are moving so fast that they quite easily get bored with reading (or learning.)
This is like public speaking in that everyone knows how to talk, but it is different to stand in front of an audience and speak well.
Looking at a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is just learning and 10 the best in the world) before I started reading every day I thought I was a 6-7 level.
After a year of reading, I realized my reading was really at a 2-3 level before I began reading every day, and after a year of reading 400+ minutes every week I was then at a 6-7 level. (More on this in my next blog.)
Looking back, I feel quite lucky that we didn’t have smart phones as I may have just started playing games all the time and may never have built my reading skills.
I was doing what Stephen Covey calls sharpening the saw—building my skills.
Improving on something like reading takes a lot of time, energy, and focus.
Let me translate that, into learning to read truly well costs us to give up those things we “value,” and therefore becomes more “valuable.”
Anything in life we have to give (money, time, effort) creates value.
One of the reasons coaching is so effective is the immediate feedback on thinking, skills, and confidence with values.
Again, all my training courses were created with immediate feedback tools to give immediate feedback on value thinking, skills. and confidence.
How do you get regular feedback on your value thinking, skills, and confidence.
Give more value to build yourself, you’ll create more value.
Remember, come join tomorrow to see more Improving Your Engagement with Screenagers and others inspirational experiences and ideas for Optimal Engagement in the ScreenAge.
Remember to engage tomorrow.
Following with you.
Keep it simple.
All the Best, Warren
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