Book Notes: Reinvent Yourself by James Altucher, Pt. 1

I’m on a mission to get the best experiences I can out of life, as you can see here and here. But I’ve also been consuming more books in the last six months than I have in the previous six years.

I had lost a consistent reading habit. Partially due to the enjoyment I get from absorbing information through great speeches or lectures. I can eat up a whole weekend on TED talks and science lectures. However, there is a distinct advantage to long-form writing that you just can’t replace with blogs, lectures, or podcasts. The author has a lot of time and space to articulate a deeper message. And you the reader have more time to sit and absorb the material, make highlights, take notes, etc...

But I also became a bit disenchanted with many of the books I have read for personal growth. My problem was this:

I believe he was referring to those who read but never take action on anything they read. Books are great but without experiences, the knowledge is useless. Unfortunately, I would often read a book on some aspect of personal or professional development, set it down inspired, and proceed to do everything exactly as I had before reading the book. It’s as if I was waiting for the book to somehow trigger some magic switch within me. But guess what?

You can’t steer a parked car.

Action is where it’s at. So I began to read less and move more. And guess what? I began to see exponential growth.

Now I’m back to devouring books and I’ve recently come across a few that have made huge impacts on my life. I want to share them with you, but not all here in one post. I’m afraid I’d lose you. So I’ve decided to share what I’m currently reading by posting some of the passages I’ve highlighted and share my thoughts on the books as I go.

What I’m hoping for here is a dialogue with you.

As I share passages and discuss ideas, I would love to hear your thoughts on the matters. I suppose this could turn into a book club if you want to get each book and read along with me, but since I will be posting about specific passages, that’s not necessary for you to contribute.

Finally, I’ve found that...

I learn information best by turning around and teaching it to others.

It helps me to distill the ideas or skills and internalize them in order to properly express them to others. So I hope by sharing what I’m reading it will help me to take further action and improve on my own growth while helping others get access to the information.

I plan on making this about a weekly feature here, but we’ll see how it goes. No promises!

I hope you find it as valuable as I do.

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First up:

Reinvent Yourself by James Altucher

One of the recent books that made such an impact on my life was his book Choose Yourself. So when I saw that James had a newer book out with an intriguing title I nabbed it up. I’ll admit, so far it’s not as good as Choose Yourself (I’ll be sharing my notes on that as I reread it in future posts.)

But I am still enjoying it. This book seems to be a gathering of his various interviews and blog posts over the years. Nothing wrong with that. Consolidating a large body of work into a single volume is a rad way to write a book. I say that because that’s how I’m writing my book at the moment.

One of the things I appreciate about James is that he is promoting an Internal Locus of Control.

When speaking about the changing economy and your own financial future he points out,

“You can’t rely on government or educational institutions."

That may be obvious to many of us, but he then proceeds to show you ways that you can rely on yourself. He offers actual solutions.

The theme of this book is personal reinvention. As he puts it,

“Reinvention is life. This is the call to adventure that constantly whispers to us. Do we answer it? Do we take the call?”

Then he proceeds to show you how to rise to the challenge.

The first tangible tactics are lined out in chapter 3: How to find a mentor.

There's some good stuff in here that I will share next week, but I’m keeping this one short since I took so much of your time explaining the how and why of my Book Notes series. Next week I’ll jump right into the Book Notes so we’ll have some ideas to discuss. That way if any of you do want to get the book you have time to catch up.