You WANT to be better as a leader, a parent or simply as a person.

You buy courses, books, PDF’s.  You PLAN to put it into action one day and are simply collecting useful information for when that time comes…

Whether these are physical books, books in your Kindle app, online courses in your email or in a folder on your computer – we call all of these your ‘bookshelf’.  They all represent the same thing – self improvement in some way.

In the beginning, you look at your bookshelf and are excited.  Just LOOK at all that hope and promise.  You are REALLY active in getting book recommendations, reading reviews, watching videos that you put into playlists.

These are great intentions but lead you down a horrible path.  All the books, all the plans, all the ideas that are never put into action actually begin to have psychic weight.

After time passes, you don’t take action and you look at your bookshelf and feel… bad.  You have let yourself down.  You are not following through.   You are letting yourself down.  You are literally breaking a small piece of trust with yourself EVERY TIME.

Every time you see the bookshelf, you feel that sting of disapproval.  It weighs on your mind until you willfully stop looking at your shelf because the weight is enormous.  You can *almost* feel it.  In truth, if you are highly tuned to your body, you CAN feel it.  This weight is 100% real.

The ‘weight’ of inaction is as real in your mind as a backpack full of rocks on your shoulders.

Inaction breeds personal distrust.  You start to doubt YOURSELF and your resolve.   Lack of action builds and builds.  You must first learn to let the weight go.  Then you must begin to follow through.

If this feeling, this weight is enough to get you started on actually improving yourself, GREAT!  If you are like most of the rest of us, it is time to clean house.

Clean up your bookshelf:

1. Take all the books off your bookshelf and put those books away, out of sight, EXCEPT ONE,
2. Grab all those courses on your computer or in your email and put them into a folder called ‘Not Right Now’,
3. Stop collecting information for the future.  Stop buying books.  Stop buying courses.
4. Go through our Workout, Let Go of Negativity.  I know, I know – yet more self-development – but it is designed to help you in exactly this kind of negative self-speak and it is short!

We are at Day Zero of your new life.

Day Zero Instructions:

1. Take the one book and read it within a certain timeframe – a week, a month – whatever the timeframe is right for you.
   1. Keep it top of mind, any time you have 15 minutes or more pull it out and read a little.
   2. Put reminders on your phone to read for short periods of time, if need be, so you actually finish it.
   3. Write in the margins.
   4. Use the ideas in your life and make them yours.
2. When you finish that book, put it on your empty bookshelf and grab the next from the ones in storage.  Repeat Day Zero Instructions.

As you finish books and put them on your bookshelf, each time you look at it a feeling of pride will now replace the feeling of dread you used to have.  Each book is a small ‘peak’ you have climbed.

When it comes to our workouts, and others that are virtual, make sure that you create some kind of list of everything that you have completed.  Create some kind of ‘pride wall’.

HOWEVER, don’t cheat yourself!  Each book, workout, course or piece of self development you finish, make sure you completed to your level of satisfaction.

There are many books I have picked up, thinking I would love them, and then found I just didn’t like it and put it down. I used some of the ideas and maybe someday I will come back to it but right now I am 100% satisfied that I got what I wanted out of it.  It went on my completed bookshelf.

No go get to work, get started on your new bookshelf and feel great about what you ARE accomplishing and NOT bad about what you are not.