Ep #175: How to Get The Most Out of The Books You Read

Hi, docs. Welcome to The EntreMD Podcast, where it’s all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I’m your host, Dr. Una.

Well hello, hello my friends. Welcome back to another episode of The EntreMD Podcast. You are in for a treat. So, as always, thank you for listening, thank you for sharing, thank you for subscribing. If you haven’t done any of these, today is a really great day to do that.

We’re going to have an amazing time, this is going to be such a transformational episode in so many ways. All right, so the background of it is this, I homeschool my kids. Well, I homeschool my older two. I have four kids, my older two are 11 and 13 and I homeschool them. And I’ll give you the back story of that.

I decided to homeschool them because I was like, “Okay, they’re doing really well in school, for the most part they’re A students, but am I equipping them to thrive in life?” Because I went through a rigorous education and I came out not knowing anything about business, not much about leadership. Not knowing personal development was a thing, thinking my medical education was all that I needed. And so I had to come out of the whole medical training and educate myself.

And so I’m like why wait until they’re 20 or 30 like I was, when they can start right now? I mean, if you can go to a theater and watch a two hour movie then you can read a personal development book. That’s kind of my philosophy.

So I was like, well, what if they had their academics but they also had business development, kind of like business education, leadership education, faith education. Because faith is a huge part of what I do and I’m like why? Why not transfer that too?

And then I also had, this is going to be so amusing to you, home management because I’m like you have to know how to clean your room, you have to know how to cook, and all these great things, and you can learn them. And I was like, this is going to be a complete education. So that’s the backstory.

So we started homeschooling them this school year and it’s been amazing. So amazing. Okay, so that’s the backstory. So on Tuesdays, they go with me to pick the younger two who are still in school. And we have this little family routine, where on Tuesdays, they go with me, we pick them up. And then from there we go to the library, everybody borrows their books for the week. And then we go get ice cream. So that’s kind of our little routine that happens every Tuesday.

So today was one of those days. And I had them reading a book, the name of the book is Imagine Big, it’s by Terri Savelle Foy. It’s all about goal setting, vision boards, the whole nine yards. So they started reading the book yesterday. So once we got in the car, I’m like, “Okay, so talk to me about chapter one and chapter two of Imagine Big.

And so my daughter said her piece, and then my son, who is my 11 year old, said, “From chapter one I got that you need to set goals, you need to have a vision. If you can’t see the future, you can’t have it.” And then he went on to say, “And then in chapter two.”

I’m like, “Hold up, hold up, hold up. Hang on, let me show you how to get stuff out of a book. Because what you shared with me is the concepts that she shared, but I don’t hear your thoughts about it. I don’t hear your reflection, I don’t hear what you’re going to do.

So there’s a way to read a book in a way that you get so much out of it. So we had this whole conversation. And at the end of it, I was like, “This is so good. I need to take notes on what I said and make this a podcast episode.” So we’re here, that’s how this happened.

So I told him, I said, “You know what,” I said, “let me give you an example. Let’s say I read a book about water, drinking more water and how it’s the pathway to health.” Most of the American population is dehydrated and you’re supposed to drink half your body weight in water, and you have to be really dehydrated for you to actually get symptoms. So a lot of people walk around, and how it hurts your body and all that.

Let’s say I read that and someone asked me, what did you get from that book? And I told them just that. I learned that your supposed to drink this much water, and most Americans are dehydrated, and these are some tricks to get water in and all that stuff and I stopped there. The book would not be very beneficial to me.

So I told him, I said, “So what should I do? I should read and get the concept. So that’s number one. And then Number two, I should reflect on it.” I should go like, “Okay, if that’s the case, they’re talking about me drinking half my body weight. How much do I actually drink?” And I’m like, “Wow, on a good day, I’m only drinking two bottles of water. I’m only putting 32 ounces in there. And that’s not even half of what I should be drinking.”

And I go like, “Wow, then maybe– And when I think about half my body weight, I mean, that’s just too much. I don’t think I can drink that much. But hey, how about, I double what I do drink. Instead of doing two bottles, I do four bottles, right? And then I start working my way up to half my body weight.”

Now my daughter’s totally cracking up because she knows I’m not a big water drinker. So a lot of times I’ll drink tea to make up for it. So she’s laughing. She’s like, “Yeah, right, whatever.”

But anyway, so I’m telling him all this. I said, “Okay, so now see what happened. Number one, I got the concept. Number two, I reflected on the concept, like how does this apply to me? Not us, not everybody, me. And number three, how am I going to apply this?”

So concept, reflection, and application. So I said to him, I said, “Listen, in school you are typically learning to pass a test.” And please understand me, I’m not knocking the school system. I’m not saying it’s not good teaching or anything like that. But I read, I measure like can I regurgitate this? Can I tell you the concept I learned? And that’s school learning, right?

But you and I in the personal development space, you know that the best kind of learning is learning to do. So I learned this is how you do a signature talk, and then I go do it. This is how you figure out your profitable business idea, and then I go do it. This is how you do a Facebook Live and I go do it. This is how you build a team, and then I go do it.

It’s not enough for me to know the concepts because knowing the concepts will not change my business. And so I said, that’s the difference. So you’re learning to pass a test. In the real world, the highfliers are learning to do.

And then I said, “So let’s think about it. Let’s say you have two people. All right, Mr. A, and Mr. B. And Mr. A over the course of a year read 50 books. And he knew the concepts from the book, but he stopped there. And Mr. B read 12 books, which is less than a fourth of what Mr. A read. But from every book, he had the concepts, the reflection, and the application.”

So he got the concepts, he thought about how it applied to him and where he was. I even told him, listen, reading a book is kind of like going to the mall, and seeing that little sign that says you are here.”

Your reflection is you are here. Like in the scheme of this, this is where I am. This is how I’m doing in this department. This is where I’m missing it, this is where I’m winning at it. It’s evaluation, it’s not good or bad. It’s just this is where I am.

And then you look at the Gucci store and you’re like, “I’m trying to go there.” So the reflection is you are here. The application is what do I need to do to get to the Gucci store?

So I said, “Let’s say this Mr. B, he had the concepts, he had the reflection, he had the application. I said, who do you think, at the end of 12 months experiences radical, dramatic transformation?” And he says person B. I’m like person B, Mr. B, how?

I mean, he read a quarter of the books, how is it that he can experience more of a transformation than the person who read 50? He’s like because he applied it. And so because of that he was getting results.

So think about it, at this stage we’re not reading books because we want to get an A on the book we read. No. So what do we read the books for? To reflect and apply. Understand the concept, reflect, apply, understand the concept, reflect, and apply.

So then I said, “Okay, so talk to me again about chapter one.” And so he tells me the concept, which is what he told me before. And then he goes on to say that when I think about it, I don’t really, I don’t write a lot of goals. I’ve written some here and there. And I don’t pay a lot of attention to it, I just write stuff. And when I do it, then I toss it. So I don’t look at it. And if I’m not looking at it, I don’t remember it so that I can’t really act on it.”

I said, “Okay, that is a great reflection. So now, based on that, what are you going to do differently?” So he says, “Well, maybe what I do need to do is make a vision board with my goals with pictures that represent it so that every day I see them and so I’m inspired to keep taking action, I’m inspired to get new concepts, new ideas to get it done.”

I was like, “Okay, so do you see the difference in what you got from the chapter because you took two extra seconds, I’m exaggerating, to reflect and to apply?’

So what do I want you to do with this? I wanted to share it with you because this is the same thing for every book, it is the same thing for every program. I want to give a big shout out to Dr. Michelle Quirk, and she is a pediatrician and she’s a run coach. And she is the founder of Mindful Marathon.

Now, there’s some statements she made early on, this is her second year in the Business School. And in her first year she made a statement, she was one of the physicians who hosted the welcome party for an incoming class. And she’s like, “I just have the success path. I have it, I use it as a checklist.”

So the success path is kind of like you’re here, these are all the things you need to do in your business, stage one, stage two, stage three, like that. And she was like, “I just follow it. I just follow it. I understand the concept. I look at what I need to do in my business, and I just do it.”

And she’s like I do it, sometimes I fall behind, I catch up, I do it. I do the challenges, I do this, I do that.” And when she said that I made a note of it. I said, “See, people like that, even if they don’t look like they’re growing as quickly as others, those are people to watch. Why? They are always going to get to the top. They are always going to have businesses that explode. They are always going to exceed what they think they can do.”

Even if all you’re doing is taking baby steps where you’re just like, “I apply, I keep applying, I keep applying,” it will shock you where you’ll be. So whether it’s a book, an online course, whether it’s a program, whether it’s the EntreMD Business School, if you’re the person who takes the concepts, you reflect, am I doing this?

What fears are stopping me? Why am I not owning this? Well, if I do it, what will happen to my business? What will happen to my life? What will happen in the lives of my clients? Wow, so I’m going to do this. Even if you can’t do the version the teaching is talking about you can do some version. You can fight, you can fight to do it.

So there is so much gold to be had. It’s almost like every book, every online course, every program is almost like the earth in South Africa and there’s diamonds in it. So just learning and getting the concepts is like finally getting to South Africa and standing at the top of someplace that has diamond in it. But that’s not the way you get the diamond, you still have to dig.

So you sign up for a course how do you get the most out of it? By digging. How do you dig? Understand the concept, reflect, apply, understand the concept, reflect, apply, understand the concept, reflect, apply. So I did that and I was like, “Oh my goodness, I have to come share it because this is just phenomenal.” This is what I do but I’d never quite articulated it that way.

So I want you to make a decision to apply the concept. Like he said, Chidi, my 11 year old, he said, “The person who reads 12 books, who applies this, will get so much more out of it and experience a much more dramatic transformation than the person who reads 50 books.”

And I want you to be like the person who read 12. Maybe you read 50 and you apply this, see now that’s crazy growth. You’re going to look back at the end of 12 months and you are going to say, “How did I become this person?” And I would love for you to have this story.

Okay, so this is the way you 10X whatever investment you made. You read a book, 10X the investment. You did a course, 10X. You are in the EntreMD Business School, please hear me, 10X your investment. And this is how you do it.

So if you got something out of this, I want to hear about it because I want to show him and say, “Listen, you helped the world of physicians by telling me only the concept. We got this whole thing, I was able to share it with them.”

So I want you to take this episode, take a screenshot of it. I want you to post your biggest aha moment from it and I want you to tag me, #EntreMD. I will look for it, I will show him. Put a smile on a11 year old’s face, I just outed him and told all his business here.

All right. So thank you for listening to this. I am looking forward to hearing your 10X stories. Make sure you tell me, PM me, DM me, send me an email, Dr. Una, that’s D-R-U-N-A @entremd.com, and I just look forward to celebrating. I’ll see you, my friend, on the next episode of The EntreMD Podcast.

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