Life Development Study - 20 Minutes per Day

This activity is, in my experience, as essential as having a rudder on a ship. I have carried out this esssential practice almost every day for more than thirty years. Also, I think is is easier to be successful at doing it consistently if we chose a time each day, while eating lunch for instance, and then being fiercely protective of this time because of the realization that over time nobody can compete with someone who has consistently schooled themselves on the matter of life and death. Why life AND death ? As a great author once said "the only way to die well is by living well".

Why 20 minutes each day ? Why not two hours once per week ? They both add up to about the same amount of time, so what's the difference ? I believe the difference lies in the type of study we are engaging in. The idea is to take what we have studied and to put it into practice in our daily lives. And from my experience, studying in long blocks of time tend to make it "study for study's sake", instead of "study for ACTION'S sake".

Each and every principal I have used to achieve the success in my daily life that I am truly proud of would never have ended up in my heart and mind had I not been consistent with this habit. I am still extremely passionate about my twenty minutes of study each day and feel that I am reading a letter personally addressed to me-something I can and will use as soon as possible. Because I view this activity this way it has never devolved into merely a form of intellectual stimulation. Interestingly, many of the books I have read have been prompted by something I picked up during my "life study" sessions and these books functioned as mortar and bricks in the
foundation of my life. I should also mention that I also like to read books for the purpose of entertaining myself as well and feel that it is probably healthier than only watching movies or TV
because I am exercising my mind. But the time reading this sort of books doesn't count toward my life study goal.

I started studying with the attitude that I was reading a letter personally addressed to me over thirty years ago. I was at that time suffering in my job situation. I was not yet on solid footing on my career path, doing some odd jobs like carpentry and less than stimulating office work - in general just getting by. Moreover, I didn't have rapport with the bosses who had to suffer my poor work habits, especially my inability to show up for work on time. With this scenario as a backdrop, I sat down for my daily study session and something in a periodical written by my mentor really hit home: The passage said to the effect that whatever one's chosen field, the important thing was to never be a coward and never be a loser. Ouch....that one stung! And it has also stuck with me almost daily ever since I read it.

To sum this up, in my experience, studying this way which is the path of lifelong learning and self development is a practice that forms the basis for victory in life.