Here is the complete transcript of the podcast
Welcome back to Success with Srini. Before turning on this microphone, I was just making an observation, March 15. And this is like two and a half months into this podcast, daily podcasts. Unbelievable what has happened, thank you for being a listener, thank you for the support. Hopefully, you are liking everything here. Hopefully, this is helping. And my job, my goal, my intent is to shop every day here and share with you something that’s going to empower you that’s going to position you for success, incrementally, maybe first small, little success, but then success for sure. On a daily basis. That’s my goal with this podcast. So today, I want to pick up a topic that is very close to my heart. This is something that I spoke about numerous times on this podcast. And if you go back in time, we don’t expire podcasts here. So this should be at least a few from 2016 2017, even 2020.
Talking about this very topic, which is how to read more. How do you become good, really good at reading? Back in the day, there wasn’t much today, there are so many tools, there are so many strategies, so many techniques, the world is becoming flattered by the day, this information is so amazing how you can access anything literally on your fingertips, made to me five years ago amazed me even more 10 years ago, but then it doesn’t amaze me anymore. Because I’m beyond amazed by what’s happening in terms of technology in terms of knowledge sharing in terms of ad exchanges. If you just have a little bit of intent, you could literally get anything you want, given the times that we are in right now. So that said, let’s get into this. I’ve been asked this question, how do you read more, I have shared that I have multiple books that I read and have been in different industries myself. Anytime I’m exposed to a new idea, a new concept, I try to go deep as much as I can I give it my time, my effort, my energy, my whatever I have.
So along the way, over all these years, I try to read a lot. And long, many, many years ago, I read somewhere that knowledge is not known to enter a wide-open mouth. So people who speak a lot people who talk a lot, usually don’t have a lot, because they are not good listeners. And as a speaker, this is a challenge I have, which is I speak a lot, which puts me in a very bad position because I’m not listening to a lot. So one of my pursuits over the last 1012 years has been that become a good listener. And becoming a good listener is hard because you have natural instincts within you, your body, your minds are structured in a way to perform something in a certain way. So if you’re a speaker, you will speak and perform in a certain way you have difficulty listening, not all but some and I’m one of those people who have trouble listening. So I practiced listening to a lot. And a part of listening is also reading. Because when you’re reading the words are entering through your ear, the way the brain processes it, even though it looks at the words, but the words the way they attach themselves and create the meaning. It’s as if you are hearing as if you are listening. So reading a book is also listening. Now I have a few ideas I want to share in this podcast that will help you become a good reader.
Of course majority of these you can find over the internet and all but then these are some of my personal experiences too, that I experimented with. First and foremost, if you have an elementary school kid in the house, or your kids went to elementary school, ask them how to become a good reader. Because they have really gotten their wherever they are today because you know they’ve been ingrained with all their read a lot. They read a lot. That’s the that’s the point. Back in the day when I was growing up, there was not much reading there were no teachers telling us to take the book, go home, read give back. But here the teachers do, and there is a certain number of books that a kid has to read in a year. So talk to your kids, they’ll tell you everything about how to become a good reader. So that’s step number one. Step number two is to set a goal for reading. Like read at least one book every three months or two months or once a month, something like that set a goal set a timeline, and just read as much as you can. I start the day by reading a page or two in the middle of the morning. That’s one of my morning activities and then I try to read one or two pages towards the end of the day. Then ever you are read two pages in the morning, two pages in the Evening, if you can, it’s a good habit to have. It’s not about coverage. It’s not about how many pages you read how many books you read, it’s not at all the point. But I try to read a physical book. And that’s why I have difficulty in getting rid of books. I tried a pack of books, I gave a lot of books away, give a lot of books on air on my radio show. But then I read physical books, I also have a light that clips onto my books. And that’s an LED light. For me to read books in the night.
I also suggest that you take a speed-reading class, there are so many programs available. Take a speed-reading class I took one long time ago, but I stopped it in the middle. And I never really followed through on it, which was not the right thing for me to do. But now it’s more about how I retained at this age where I am right now than how much you can do for me personally. So speed reading helps. But then every time I try speed reading myself, I end up becoming less. So I end up going back and rereading again. So which is counterproductive in the end. So I read less now, but then I try to retain more, which I do. I also suggest that you take a comprehension class, which is what they teach in schools, it gives a good understanding gives a good footprint, good baseline into language into words into many things, I would start there. Then I also suggest getting an e-book reader even though I’m a big fan of buying books, reading books, and passing books along I suggest you get an e-book reader or something a device an electronic device which you can read on my iPad or what whatever that device. And the reason why I suggest this now is because of something called combined reading.
So what a combined reading does is people listen to audiobooks, so you can get an audiobook. If you already have the physical book, it’s great, but then you get an ebook reader and you play the audiobook, you listen to the headsets. And you read the book at the same time. So sometimes what happens is when you’re reading a book, there are distractions coming at you and things happening around you. So typically people lose the flow. And by listening to what you’re reading what the eyes are seeing, the flow continues, even though one of the sensory elements drop, so your eyes get tired, and they get focused or your ears get tired, they get D focused. And then this overall sensory alignment is there. So you get a good mix. also schedule a time to read. And I think I already made that point read in the morning, read in the evening if you can read in the afternoon, with not about a number of pages, just a little bit of stimulation, what you need a knowledge stimulation or knowledge push. Then the other thing is, if you can then schedule the amount of time we are going to read like, say 1015 minutes, 10 minutes in the morning, 10 in the afternoon 10 In the evening, you don’t do anything other than just reading wherever you are. Okay, then, if you want to also do what is called an in-between reading, like in between activities you want to read any activity, it doesn’t matter, like you do one activity, then you read for five minutes, come back and do the second activity read for five minutes. That’s how I would structure this now one of the early structures I had back in the day, you know, the late 90s, early 2000s, sometime around the time, if I used to go somewhere, I would have to read a chapter after reaching the destination, for example, if I go to Costco, then I reach the Costco parking lot, I park in the parking lot, I read a chapter, then I go inside, then I shop, I come back and then read a chapter and then come home. I used to do that back then till the parking lots became busy. And then people like would like wait behind you to park their car. So I don’t do that now, but you get an idea. So for example, I go hiking, I go park the car, read the chapter and then go hike, then come back, read a chapter and come back home. While sitting in the car I do this. So the different ways you kind of incentivize yourself at the same time you structure this at the same time you plan this at the same time you stack this so different things going into this technique, which is very effective because at the end you don’t feel like you just went from for hiking but you also feel that you completed readings doing something big You’re just doing that one act. So which is powerful.
This is an interesting observation that I, very early on in the earlier podcast, talked about how to read more. I made a comment there very early on a few years ago, which is, you know, I’m not a native. I’m not born into America, and I’m not raised in America. So my vocabulary is very weak. So when growing up, in going to school, I probably had like five to 600 words that I really knew as a kid. And then, later on, I came back, when I came to us, I probably now 25 years living here. But then, by the time I came here, and I landed here, I probably was about maybe 1800, about maybe 2000 words, in English, not not a lot. So there was a struggle, there are some words that I don’t use because I don’t know how to say, and because the way my, my accent is, the way my tongue moves, and the way my overall internal vocal structure is, I can’t say those words, they the sound art, I know, I’m gonna mess them up. So I don’t say those words. I never said that, in any of my podcasts, any of my radio shows any of my seminar presentations, and I get away without saying those words. It’s funny. If I even tell you the words that I avoid, you know, I can probably run a million-dollar giveaway. And I can ask you listen, in any of the recordings, we find this word me speaking anywhere, send me a recording, I’ll give you a million dollars. And I’m willing to bet on that there were some very common words I cannot say, because of the way I was raised and the way my vocal structure is, and the way this whole thing, my tongue, and everything is structured. But I have always been curious, what have I learned? Now that I lived 25 years in America? And then I’ve worked with people. So I’m always curious, did my vocabulary base did it go up? And reading does that if you read? So over the last 25 years, I have been testing myself to see how far I have gone through numerous tests to see what is the depth of your vocabulary? How many words do you know, in English, Paul Newton, and a bunch of others? I think he has a team people came up in 2006 came up with a vocabulary test. And in that test, what they suggested is, for every one question, you get right, you know, 500 words. So they give you 100 questions.
They do a test, let’s say you get 50 of those words, right? That means 50 multiplied by 500 Is your vocabulary, overall vocabulary. Okay, that’s the strength. I keep taking the test. In fact, before coming to this podcast this morning, I did take the test to just be accurate to be precise. How am I doing because I’m going to come here on the podcast, I’m gonna share some data with you. So here is my vocabulary base right now based on this test that I now have about my total base now is 10,000 words. 10,000 English words, word families, at least 10,000 English word families. That’s how they report this. I’m not saying this is the best formula. I have no, no idea, the different ways to test this and all. But you get an idea. At least I get an idea. This is the mark that I use now. And I keep on testing myself. Can I go from 10,000 above? I’ve not gone crossed 10,000 For a long time now. But I need to even improve learning new words. But there’s also another data point here that every one of us, we learn one new word a day for the rest of our lives. So one new word is coming into your life, whether we know it or not. Now I take this data now and I compare that with my kid.
My kids went through elementary school and now one in the high school one is in the middle school when I look at them, but when they were in elementary school, they were already having a base of 20 to 30,000 words already in elementary school. So you see the gap, the gap is pretty wide. It’s very wide. Now. So they at this point in high school, let’s take that as a mark. Then in high school, they already have what 20 to 25,000 words they actually know the probably passively know another 20,000 words that they don’t use So about the bass is about 40,000 words. And here I am, I lived half my life. And I’m not even able to cross the 10,000 mark, despite, you know, trying being at it for a long time, you see how important this is. And learning new words essentially was also nourishing your brain, your mind. I mean, there is another growth happening as a result of you learning a language. So I did a whole different podcast on this because people can question this, they say, you know, why learn the words life is moving on anyway? Well, life will move on anyway, why do all this anyway, right? You can turn this interest in this question in different ways. But now the question is, you made this point, if I still have you listening to this, you ask the question, where do you take this test? No, the website is vocabulary size.com vocabulary size.com. So you go there, take the test anonymously. And you will come to know where you stand with your English. Hopefully, you will do it. And that’s all for me on the podcast. And hopefully, today’s podcast motivates you to inspire co2. Read more.
Hopefully, I justified why you should read more. Yeah, that’s all I’ll stop here. Have a wonderful
day. And I’ll come back tomorrow. And we’re going to talk a little bit more about a new idea on a new concept. Thank you.