Why I Stopped Reading 5 Books a Month And Started Growing Instead

I found myself caught in a common trap - reading one self-help book after another without making any meaningful changes in my life.

You see, I'm an avid reader. I love diving into LinkedIn & Medium articles, blogs, scientific literature, African literature, self-help books - you name it. But self-help books really got me hooked.

This popular advice seemed compelling, that read 5 to 10 books a month to accelerate your growth.

Motivational speakers would often cite billionaires and successful entrepreneurs who consumed 10 books monthly. They usually credited this habit for their remarkable success. Being a book lover, I eagerly embraced this advice.

The result? An overwhelming list of "actions-to-take" that kept growing longer. Each self-help book came packed with strategies and steps for achieving your desired state. I accumulated countless ideas but never actually implemented them.

Despite all the reading, I wasn't experiencing the transformative improvements these books promised.

Something felt off. The approach wasn't working for me and that realization led me to develop my own strategy: Read one book, extract just one meaningful action from it and focus solely on implementing that action for an extended period before moving to the next book.

Since adopting this approach, I've acted on only five specific things from my reading. But the interesting part is, the results have been remarkable in both my personal and professional life.

The quality improvement is tangible; I can see and feel the difference. It's like the difference between planting many seeds without watering them, versus nurturing just a few plants to full bloom.

While this method might not be the universal "best way," it has proven incredibly effective for me.

The key was recognizing that transformation doesn't come from the quantity of books read, but from the depth of implementation.

I'm sticking to this approach with self-help books - no more racing through ten books monthly just to check them off a list.

If you find yourself stuck in the reading-without-action cycle like I was, consider giving this method a try.

Sometimes, doing less but doing it thoroughly can lead to more significant results than trying to do everything at once.