Question-Week ending Sunday 12/01/02:
READING FOR EDUCATION:
Do you believe if your read daily for education, you could improve the quality of your life? Please read the Pre-Poll Commentary before taking this poll.
Pre-Poll Commentary:
In this seventh poll of the Daily Dozen Disciplines, we will discuss how reading daily for education can improve the quality of your life.
I believe that those who don't constantly gather knowledge and skills throughout their adult lives are setting themselves up for a quality of life well below their potential. Our culture looks at education for our young as essential and places a high priority on attending schools and colleges. I think our intentions to do so are great for our children. However, I believe that we place so much pressure on kids to work hard, study and achieve good grades that by the time they are 21 they wish they never had to pick up another book.
Upon graduation from college, kids who have read and studied so hard face the new reality of a shortage of jobs for too many of the graduates. Many young adults end up in fields that had nothing to do with their studies and become somewhat turned off to reading and future learning. Studies have shown that far too many adults never read to educate themselves after leaving school.
This takes us back to the two factors that motivate us to do things - Pain or Pleasure. Is it a pain to read or can we find pleasure and see results from our new knowledge and skills? Our attitude toward reading for education will determine whether or not we engage in this activity.
Reading the newspaper will keep us informed. But reading the biographies and success stories of the top people in our fields, can supply us with one key idea that can change our lives forever. The more success and happiness we gain from reading, the more we will want to do it. As a seminar leader and educator, I have always found that the people who turn out to attend seminars are usually among the top in their field looking to be even better.
Since our free time is so limited, we must plan and choose which activities deserve our time each day. I believe that everyone should invest a minimum of 30-60 minutes a day to reading for education. The material can be from books, magazines, journals or any type of print publication that can enhance our knowledge base or skills. A little time invested each day, followed by utilizing the knowledge we gain, can have a dramatic impact on our lives. Knowledge and skills increase our value in the marketplace and can improve your quality of life.
Let us know what you think in our poll this week. This poll will end on Sunday 12/01/02. Watch for the results and summary by Monday morning 12/02/02.
Results:
- 1-- 44% voted-Absolutely Yes-that reading daily can improve QOL
- 2-- 38% voted-Probably Yes-that reading daily can improve QOL
- 3-- 16% voted-Not Really-that reading daily can improve QOL
- 4-- 02% voted-Absolutely Not-that reading daily improves QOL
Post-Poll Commentary:
Our top vote getter in this poll was 44% of respondents believed that you Absolutely Can improve your quality of life by reading daily. It was closely followed by 38% voting Probably Yes. That's 82% believers. Now the question is are we TAKING THE ACTION of actually reading for education daily? We didn't ask that question. But I am happy with the high consensus of believers we received.
Now back to taking action. Where does reading for education fall on our priority list of things to do each day? Is it before watching TV or after? Is it before reading the newspaper or after? This is critical. If it falls low on our priority list, it will remain there until someone, something or some event forces it up the list. Like all other activities, it must be considered a valuable use of time and most of all pleasurable.
I use magazines as my primary print publication to educate myself. My second choice is to read books. Over the last ten years I have read over ten thousand magazines. I subscribe to over 30 of them. Several are weekly and many are bi-weekly. The remainders are monthly. They cover a wide spectrum of subjects including news, health, business and technology. I enjoy reading about the methods that people, companies and organizations use to achieve tremendous success. I sincerely look forward to reading and Love It. Thus for me, reading is placed several notches ahead of the little time I devote to TV watching. I believe that reading for education has paid tremendous dividends toward the quality of my life as well as so many others I know. But the key here is I associate great pleasure to reading.
I share this information with the hope to inspire my readers to MAKE THE TIME to read more. I realize we are all so busy every day. Responsibilities are so overwhelming. But reading to educate yourself is an activity you don't want to miss daily. Once you see the results you will enjoy reading more. It will then move up to a top priority of things to do each day.