Leaders are Readers

• It was once said, “It is sad that people have a favorite restaurant and not a favorite author”. Few things in life will do more to bring success, fulfill your dreams, develop you as a person, increase your income, bring contentment and all round make life better than reading. Books and articles have the ability to entertain, educate and develop us in powerful ways. It allows you to hear the thought of great thinkers, laugh with wonderful humorists, and learn from those who know.
  
  Here are some stats that I find disturbing. These were gathered by the Jenkins Group, a publishing service firm.
  1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
  42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
  80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
  70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
  If you desire to be all you can be, you must read. Leaders are readers. No matter what your goals for life are, you will never be the best if you do not read. Mark Twain had it right when he said, “The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”
  
  I have heard it a thousand times, “I am just not a reader, and I never have been”. There may be some reasons for that, all of which can and should be corrected. Do any of the following rings true for you?
  
  You have not been reading books that interest you. Studies have shown that children who have been diagnosed with reading disabilities have dramatically improved when given books that interest them.
  You see reading as a punishment. When we are forced to read things that do not catch our interest, we soon see reading as a whole in a bad light.
  You see reading as taking too much time. We are all busy; however, investing a bit of time each day, even 20-30 minutes, in reading things that will improve us will save hours of time muddling through things.
  You think because you are a slow reader you are a bad reader. We all have different types of learning (that is for a different time). I am an audio learner. I learn best if I can hear things. I am also a slow reader. If I want to really get things to sink in, I need to ready out loud so I hear the words not just see them. On average I read 20-30 books a year. I do not read fast but I do read often.
  
  Let me encourage you to read. Find topic you like and start off with one book at a time. You will soon find yourself looking forward to the time you can sit and dive into a good book. Whether it is fiction or non-fiction, reading will make you better and open a whole new world of discovery.
  
  Are you a reader? Let us know how you spend your time in books. Your encouragement may be the key to a new life for one of our readers. If you are not a reader, take the one book challenge. Find a book that interest you, could be old or new. Read that book just for fun and let us know what you think.
  Reading will change and enhance your life.

I know you can do this. I believe in you!