I have a confession to make. I love books. I have hundreds. There are many different topics. I have one shelf in my office dedicated to public speaking books. Another shelf has only CS Lewis books. I love them. I love to collect them. I don’t often read them.

Yes. You read that last line correctly. I love books. I collect them. Sitting down and reading paper books is hard for me. My preferred method of reading is listening. I listen every day. However, it still bothers me that I have a hard time with the old fashioned way.

Something strange happened yesterday. I gave myself permission to be still and read. I opened the book and when I was done I had read a quarter of the book. I can’t remember the last time I sat down and read 50 pages at once. I was rather proud of myself. I intend to finish that book this weekend.

So, why has it been hard if I was able to do what I thought I couldn’t do. I have a couple of answers:

1. I haven’t made it a priority at the right time of day. Every time I try to read a paper book is right before bed. It doesn’t work. I drop the book on my face. It is hard to see the print. It frustrates me and I give up. But…when I read a book mid day when my energy was high? It worked. Go figure.

2. I have let myself become addicted to distraction. Whether it is my phone, work emails, or whatever…I am distracted. This has to stop. If I was able to choose a different path yesterday, I can do it again.

It is my hope that my bookcase sees me more. I want to put the knowledge that lives there into my head. I want the space to think about it and ponder it while I read it. Yes, I will still listen to audio books, but I need to add this back into my routine.

I love books. It is time for me to show them.

I don’t know about you, but I am amazed when I learn new things in familiar territory. Does this ever happen to you? You’ve been around it forever, but out of the blue you learn something new. Or, something you were sure of is nothing like you thought it was?

I was at work today having conversations. It is a lot of what I do. I talk to people. I find out what is going on. I help where I am able. In one conversation, I was asking a set of questions about one topic and discovered something about another topic I didn’t expect. The questions took me somewhere I didn’t expect to go. It was like the tumblers of lock fell into place and sense started emerging. Where confusion had existed before, understanding started to grow.

I had been around the information for a long time. I thought I understood the process. It turns out I was missing some key points. I think that is what happens when we are too close to a problem for too long. It is very easy to lose our objectivity and lose our ability to see all of the details. We instinctively know there is a forest in front of us, but all we can see are the trees.

How many times does this happen to me and I don’t realize? What other areas of my life am I close to an epiphany, but don’t even know it? How do I get the barriers out of the way?

I think the answer lies in asking questions, and being willing to go wherever the answers lead you. In today’s example, I was asking one set of questions and asked for a concrete example to what my interviewee was trying to explain. In his explanation I found details I didn’t even know I needed. It was an enlightening experience.

Questions drive us forward. Questions are what keep us from being complacent. Questions can lead to progress. We just have to be ready when the answers aren’t what we expect.

You remember that line from the Matrix, right? Morpheus is training Neo. He is trying to get Neo to step into who he really is. To break away from his doubts. To be the one he was intended to be. Thankfully, by the end of the movie, Neo steps into his identity and the Matrix is forever changed.

In my new set of daily habits, I have been reading (listening) at least a chapter a day. Some days the books have been so good I have just kept going. I hit a road block. One of the books I picked up kept telling me about the book, but never got to the actual content in the book…in the first hour of listening. (Had it been a paper book I would not have made it that far…)

What book am I reading? High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. I am fascinated with the premise. Are there habits that lead to high performance? What are they? How do I implement them in my life? Answering these questions is the reason I picked up the audio book and the Kindle version as well.

My main issue so far? The introduction of the book is 27 pages. It feels like website copy for a course the author wants me to purchase. There are some interesting tidbits, but so far I am. unclear about what I am going to learn throughout the book. I keep getting lost in over explanation and unnecessary commentary.

I am looking at the table of contents on my Kindle now and the description of the first High Performance Habit doesn’t start until page 52..of a 370 page book. The author also said that he started with 1400+ pages and this was the revision.

However, all of this commentary is offset by the reader of the audiobook. It is read by the author. I can hear his enthusiasm. He is passionate about what he does. He has worked with countless people, including Oprah. I am certain there are nuggets in the book I want to get to. However, I had to set it down for now.

Am I done with the book? No. I intend to keep going. I may have to listen and read this one. I may have to skim parts that are repetitive try to find the meat of the topic. His enthusiasm makes me want to at least find that part.

I am going to keep trying. If I find the good parts, I will share more.

The title of this post is for me. I find this to be true in many endeavors. I am guilty of putting things off and procrastinating. I will prioritize less important things and put them in the way of more important things. I will make excuses. When it comes time to actually complete the task…it takes little time at all, or was not as hard as I made it out to be.

For example, I had a project for work that I needed to complete. Pull information from hither, thither and yon and put it all together for a group of people to see. I had two weeks to do it and put it off…and put it off again. Someone then requested the file. I pulled it up and less than an hour later I was done. Why did it take me so long?

I don’t like this about myself. This is one of the reasons that I have decided to spend the next 100 days doing things differently. By giving myself specific priorities for each day, I am finding that I am accomplishing those and many other things that are not on the list. Productivity is begetting productivity.

This is leading me to believe that positive changes in our lives don’t take as long as we think they do. They are not easy, but they don’t take forever. I still had to choose to start. That was the hard part, but I am starting to see the positive affect just a few days in.

This is not as hard as I made it out to be. I will tell myself that as many times as I need to.

I am now eight days into my 100 day strong goal. I have made it approximately eight days longer than I have in quite a long time. It feels really good, but not good enough. It is time to push the accelerator down and keep going.

I have been examining my motives over the last several days. What is it that makes this time different? Why do I want it more this time than before? How am I going to make sure I stay on track? I don’t have all the answers yet, but I do have a few ideas.

1. I have a specific number of things every day to accomplish. This is making the whole journey much easier. I know exactly what I have to mark off my list and I set about my day early doing just that.

2. Having to report back in writing every few days is providing accountability. Even if no one is reading this, I am still accountable to myself and God.

3. By the time it gets hard, I will most likely have started to see results… Which will make it easier.

4. As far as my motives are concerned, taking care of myself is long overdue. That is motivation enough.

There’s a chance that I will make it through 100 days and not see many external changes. I’m OK with that. Something will be different on the inside. Knowing that I accomplished this will be a reward in itself.

On to day nine.