On this 251st episode of my Monday Morning Pep Talk, I'll discuss a section I added to the 2025 Business Planning Guide that focuses on your self-development. I felt it appropriate to add Self Development (Personal and Professional Growth) as a section that should be tracked for those that want to achieve at a high level. I did this because it’s been proven that you will only perform at the level of your self-development. You cannot be a 25M, 50M, 100M producer with a 10M level of self-development. I'll dive into my thoughts today on this 251st episode.
Before I jump into today's call, I want to remind you of my professional purpose and that is to help you, the full service, full fee Advisor, optimize your productivity and help you become the best version of yourself. Why? "Because Happy Advisors Sell More Real Estate". I do that by teaching you how to handle the challenges and opportunities that you face every day. If you can effectively manage those certain situations that arise on a daily basis in your business, you'll be more productive and live a life that is the best version of you. My ask is that you listen as if you are in a one-on-one coaching session with me in my office or on a phone call.
If you want to be successful and consistently hit your vision and goals, you have to make sacrifices and choices around how you live and operate. You'll need to trade in Netflix, sports and doom scrolling for reading (listening) to audiobooks, podcasts, educational YouTube videos, online courses and seminars. Jim Rohn said it the best: "Formal education will make you a living. Personal education will make you a fortune." I truly believe this philosophy and because of it, I've invested thousands of hours into my self-development since I began my journey to reinvent myself back in February of 2008.
When I made that commitment to myself, I realized that I needed to change how I spent my time and one of my obsessions was with Chicago Cubs baseball. I moved to Chicago in 1995 and one of my first Chicago experiences, when Amy and I started dating, was the bleachers at Wrigley Field. I was hooked, so much so that for a decade plus between 1995 and 2008, I would watch, listen to or attend about 90% of games. I did the math and realized that I needed to pivot big time. The amount of time I invested in the Chicago Cubs was scary unproductive: 162 games * 90% = 146 games * 3 hours per game = 437.4 hours a year. That is the equivalent of reading 62 audio books per year or 11, yes 11, 40-hour work weeks. When I did the math, I had no choice but to give that obsession up. I reinvested that mostly frustrating time (if you are Cubs fan, you know what I mean), into learning and building my business to the tune of approximately 1,000 hours a year, and as a result, I doubled my business 4 times in 5 years between 2008 and 2013 during a nasty recession. This focus took me from desperation to stability and to this day, I continue to read, learn, editorialize and turn it into content in the form of these Monday Morning Pep Talks.
I want to go through a few points I've learned along the way:
- Build self-development into your day. Many of you drive from location to location so if you are not on the phone, listen to an audiobook. The late Zig Ziglar referred to this as your "Automobile University".
- If you are working on a certain portion of your life or business as a quarterly initiative, focus on books, podcasts and courses that give insight into that topic.
- "Listen" to the book first and if it really resonates with you, buy the hard cover version and reread it, marking it up and highlighting it with all of your main takeaways. Use it as a resource for your entire life. If it was a life changer of a book, keep reading it until it sinks into your DNA.
- If a book is not resonating after 3 chapters, put it down and move on. Don't waste your time.
- Pro tip #1: If you read to teach or share, you retain 3x more of the content. Your mind is scanning for ways to make an impact.
- A book might not "hit" for you the first time you read it like it could the 2nd or 3rd time you read it. "Atomic Habits" written by James Clear was like that for me.
- Always have books in your queue. Make notes of recommendations and keep them in your library.
- Keep a physical library and a digital library. I've chosen IBOOKS for my digital library. I can always go back and read them.
- If you love a book, buy 10 and give them away. Is there a better way to show your commitment to someone than recommending or giving them a book?
- Keep a note in a notes app of your book recommendations so you can easily cut and paste it into an email.
Here is my bonus strategy for you, from me, as you prepare for 2025. Go back into your library and pick the books that had the biggest impact on you and re-read every single one of them, sprinkling in a few new books along the way. Do this especially if you find yourself in a rut or need a spark. These books resonated with you for a reason. Go back and mine further nuggets of knowledge and inspiration that maybe you've forgotten or just missed the first time around. Do this and just focus your self-development on the best of the best. The version of you today might, like I said, pick up additional insight from that second, third or fourth time through the book.
Pro Tip #2: Do not be an over motivated underachiever. Just the process of learning will not change your life and business by itself. It’s the constant drum beat of action that moves the needle.
My latest reading list features my best-of-the-best library of book recommendations. There are a few that didn't make this version that are still game changers, but I only had room on this version for 26 books. There is a reason for 26 because over the course of the 52-week year, you’ll read 1 book every 2 weeks. It is mathematically impossible for you to read these 26 books and not be different when you are finished. It will take you about 30 minutes a day or a little over 3 hours a week to complete. My guess is that many of you read or listen to at least that much news in the morning while you're getting ready, and we know what that does for our psyche especially during an election year.
The simple things are sometimes hard to do but that is why ELPs and super achievers become ELPs and super achievers. They just have a consistent drive which fuels the activity it takes for them to move closer and closer to their goals by eliminating anchors along the way.
Your virtual mentors and authors will become some of the most important people in your life if you let them. Grab your remote, turn off the TV and tune into a book that could change your life or give you that much needed spark you've been needing. It's your choice. Hard now and easy later or easy now and hard later.
Dive into my reading here or on my website at askjimmiller.com. You can email me at [email protected] to subscribe and get the resources I feature each week.
