You want to live an amazing life.

You want to have a happy and healthy romantic relationship. You want to have a fulfilling career that gives you meaning. You want to be financially independent so that you can do what you want, when you want, with who you want.

You’re crystal clear on what you want to achieve in life.

Unfortunately, you’re just not sure how to achieve it.

As a result, you’re constantly working towards your goals, but you never make any progress.

It’s frustrating.

But here’s the good news: achieving the life of your dreams: health, love, career, happiness, etc. doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to take years. In fact, you can achieve the life of your dreams 20 times faster than you normally would.

How?

It’s simple. You have to read more.

The Reading Habits of Ultra Successful People

Somebody once asked Warren Buffett about his secret to success. Buffett simply pointed to a stack of books and said,

“Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will.”

Early in his career, Buffett would actually read 800 pages a day, not 500. Even now, he still reads for about 8 hours a day.

How does he do it? Easy. He makes reading a priority in his life. And you know what? He’s not the only one.

In an interview with The New York Times, for example, Bill Gates shared that he reads about 50 books a year. Gates will actually take reading vacations for 2 weeks at a time.

Elon Musk has said that he taught himself physics as well as rocket science simply by reading a lot of books.

Mark Cuban will spend up to about 3 hours of his day reading.

Oprah Winfrey has referred to reading as her “path to personal freedom.” She even started her own book club where she talks about her favorite books.

And the interesting thing is these aren’t just outlier examples.

If you look at CEOs in the world, the average CEO reads one book a week.

That’s 50+ books a year!

Imagine what your life would be like if you also read one book a week for the next 10 years of your life.

Given that you read the right books, you couldn’t help but be healthier, happier, and financially more successful as a result of just reading more.

This is something that all highly successful people know — that if they can get the right book in their hands, then the rest will naturally flow their way.

Why You Need To Stop Reading Harry Potter

Reading is, and always has been, the habit of the highly successful. But successful people don’t read everything.

According to Thomas Corley, author of the book Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals, he found that successful people are highly selective about what types of books they read.

Corley says that rich people (annual income of $160,000 or more and a liquid net worth of $3.2 million-plus) read for self-improvement, education, and success. Whereas less well-off people (annual income of $35,000 or less and a liquid net worth of $5,000 or less) read primarily to be entertained.

Why? Because successful people see books as a gateway to knowledge. As a result, they tend to read books that are going to help them grow their minds and improve their lives.

This is important because, the truth is, if you’re not learning anything of value, how do you expect your life to change?

Unfortunately, you can’t remain at the same level of knowledge you have right now and expect to elevate your life.

Working 9–5 at a job you hate, for example, and then coming home and reading Harry Potter isn’t going to help you grow.

Instead, you need to find books that are going to help you grow in the areas of your life that you want to improve in.

For instance, do you want to be financially independent?

Then read books like “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George Clason or “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi.

Do you want to have a happy and healthy romantic relationship?

Then read books like “Attached” by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller or “The 5 Love Languages” by Gary Chapman.

Do you want to learn how to be happy and fulfilled?

Then read books like “The Happiness Equation” by Neil Pasricha or “The Happiness Hypothesis” by Jonathan Haidt.

Whatever it is you want to achieve in life, there is an endless supply of books that will teach you and instruct you on how to do that. Go read them.

5 Practical Tips To Read A Book A Week

Reading a book a week like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett is, by far, the greatest habit you can build in your life. But don’t worry if this seems impossible. Reading a book a week isn’t a great accomplishment. In fact, anyone can learn how to do it.

Here are 5 simple tips you can use to read one book a week:

1. Read 30 pages of your book a day

First things first: In order to read a book a week, you need to actually read a book a week. This is why you need to read at least 30 pages of your book a day.

When you sit down to read, as long as you’re not being distracted by anything, most people can read 30 pages in 45 minutes. 30 pages may seem small, but all it takes is 30 pages a day to equal a book a week.

Regardless of what is happening throughout your day, always try to read at least 30 pages each day. You’ll be surprised how much that adds up day after day. Week after week. Month after month.

2. Only read books you really love

Always remember this: reading is supposed to be highly enjoyable.

Therefore, if you’re not enjoying the book you’re reading, then stop reading it immediately.

Don’t feel like you have to finish every single book you start. It’s always better to read books that sincerely interest you, rather than waste weeks trying to force yourself to read through a book just because you feel you should.

If reading feels like a chore, then you’re not doing yourself any favors.

3. Be a multi-medium reader

If have a goal to read a book a week, then you can’t be picky about what mediums you use to read.

Read paper books. Read books on your phone. Listen to audiobooks.

Audiobooks, in particular, are very important. If you struggle to read more books, then I highly suggest you try listening to more audiobooks. In fact, nearly 30% of the population are auditory learners.

By listening to audiobooks during your commute to work, school, or the gym, you can easily get through one book a week without much effort.

4. Use environmental design

If you were trying to quit eating junk food, would you still keep it lying around the house? Of course not. You would throw it away.

On the other hand, if you wanted to eat more fruits, don’t you think it would be smart of you to put some apples or bananas on the kitchen counter for easy consumption? You bet.

The key here is to design your environment to promote good behaviors and to discourage bad behaviors.

So if you want to read a book a week, then make sure you (1) remove all distractions from your environment that are preventing you from reading more, such as your phone, laptop, noise, etc. and then (2) make your books as easy to access as possible by leaving them conveniently around the house or by taking them with you wherever you go.

5. Avoid reading in bed

As humans, our brains tend to have a really tough time separating work from rest.

If you’re doing work in your bed, for example, you might find it’s hard to focus and start feeling sleepy. This is because your brain has learned to associate your bed with sleep, not work.

This is why you want to have separate environments for specific tasks. So if you want to read a book a week, don’t do it in bed. Instead, have a designated environment for just reading. Go to a coffee shop, buy a reading chair, or go to the roof if you live in an apartment building.

If you’re always trying to read in bed, you’ll typically find yourself getting sleepy, not being able to focus well, and unable to retain any important information.

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them. “

Read Great Books

More than anything else, the information you’ll learn from reading books is the key to living the life you want to live.

In the book “Me We Do Be: The Four Cornerstones of Success,” socio-economist Randall Bell says,

“Those who read seven or more books per year are more than 122 percent more likely to be millionaires as opposed to those who never read or only read one to three books.”

122%!

But that’s not all. Reading is also dramatically correlated with improved creativity, better memory, reduced stress and increased levels of happiness.

So if you want to live the life of your dreams: health, love, career, happiness, etc., then follow in the footsteps of the world’s most successful people, pick up a book, and start reading!