The Joy of Reading

I love reading. I view as a privilege. I am not sure why. Perhaps it is for the recreation value. Perhaps the intellectual stimulation. Perhaps memories of my mom reading to my brothers and I when I was little.

Reading stimulates innovative thoughts and for some reason, I value those highly. Perhaps it is because "leaders are readers" or "successful people read" and I am so driven to succeed (not sure why - perhaps I should read something on the topic).

Recently I started reading book summaries at Getabstract.com again. I think it combines my love of time management with my love of reading and perhaps a bit of my twitter personality (See Short and Fast is the New Trend).

My latest book read is Workarounds That Work - How to Conquer Anything That Stands in Your Way at Work by Russell Bishop.

It talks about the barriers to accomplishment (and how to get around them). Things like decision paralysis, meaningless meetings, email avalanche, over-multitasking, culture clashes etc.

Some the the great sections include - email etiquette (I suggest emailing it to everyone in your contact database), making the most of meetings, and overcoming complaints, criticism and resistance.

Conquering these require 3 common elements:

1 - Intention - focus and commitment
2 - Accountability - own your outcome
3 - Response-ability - your choice to control and influence what you can (and you can influence much more than you think)

Good book. It inspires to me "just get it done".