“I read your book!”
How often have I heard people say that to me about my book Don’t Just Settle: Live Your True Life?
Well, I haven’t been counting, but I can say that it’s a lot.
Of course, I’m ever so grateful that people have read my book, but my question back at them is “But did you do the exercises?”
You see, my book isn’t a novel. It’s not a text book. It’s actually a workbook.
Sure, as you read through it, you will likely get something out of the book. You might learn something new. You may look as some past events in your life through a different perspective. Or you might completely disagree with some of the concepts. That’s all great.
But – to get real value out of the book and to create any sort of change in your life, you have to do the work.
All too often people rely on ‘head knowledge’ to create a shift in their life.
Honestly, how many “shelf-help” books do you have?
I have been just as guilty of this. I love reading about how the mind works, about the science of epigenetics, and about psychology. And I have plenty of those books sitting on my bookshelf to prove it!
Building your knowledge about ‘how stuff works’ is great. But unless you apply it, nothing is really going to change.
There’s a lot of un-doing and reframing that needs to take place in order to create change. And to do that, there’s much confronting of deep-seeded beliefs as well as examining perceptions and interpretations of past events and experiences.
Reading about how the mind works, how thought patterns are created, how paradigms are developed, that’s all great knowledge to have. But in order to shift any of those paradigms, that knowledge has to be put to work.
Knowledge on its own, isn’t enough. You have to do the work.
So, whether it’s my book or anyone else’s book on creating change in your life, don’t simply read it. If you are serious about addressing areas of your life that you aren’t happy with or you dream of creating, then get serious about doing the work.
Knowing isn’t enough. Doing is what will get you there.
