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Brain Food Fridays, Number 47: Week Four to Learn Key Skills to Thrive in 2025
Dear Reader,
Thank you for being on my list. How is your reading coming along? Are you enjoying the reading challenge?
If you’re on track, last week you read a book on complex problem-solving. For this week, the focus is on creativity, originality, and initiative. And the next two weeks, the skills are related. I recommended a few books so you can decide in what order you’re going to read them. You will find books that cover all the skills in them.
- Active learning and learning strategies.
- Analytical thinking and innovation.
- Complex problem-solving.
- Creativity, originality, and initiative.
- Reasoning, problem-solving and ideation.
- Critical thinking and analysis.
- Leadership and social influence.
- Resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility.
- Technology use, monitoring, and control.
- Technology design and programming.
You may decide to read another book. Any book you choose to read, make sure that you preview it first. The following video I created last week will help you.
- The MacGyver Secret, Lee D Zlotoff and Colleen Seifert
- How to Get Ideas, Jack Foster
- The Idea Hunter, Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer
- The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools, Richard Paul and Linda Elder
I’ve read the four books and they’re good books. They’ll help you with problem solving, creativity, idea generation, and critical thinking. I want to emphasize that it’s very important to take notes as you read. For each book that you’ve read so far, review your notes and pick out the big ideas.
After you’ve read five books, I’ll teach you how to analyze and synthesize the information.
Video to Help You Get the Most from Books
I created a short video to demonstrate how to preview a book before you read it. It’s not professionally done, but it has what you need to read more effectively. I brought up a book on my iPad and quickly grabbed some books from the bookshelf.
The important sections in a book align with your purpose for reading. Other important information would be any that aids your understanding of the text. Read as much of the book as you need to. No more. No less. Think of the 80/20 Principle – read 20 percent of the book to understand 80 percent of the text. When you preview a book first, you know which 20 percent to focus on.
One of the ways to read books faster, is to read a good summary of the book first. This gives you the helicopter view of the book you want to read. But it also gives you a place to hang the information when you read the book. I subscribe to readitfor.me, click the button to subscribe (Affiliate link).
What’s Keeping Me Busy
I’m excited to say I’ll be able to launch this weekend. I’ve uploaded all the lessons to a learning management system. Right now, I’m creating a PowerPoint presentation for subscribers to view before taking the course. The course consists of nine Bookish Notes on books that deal with getting ideas. I analyzed and synthesized the information from the books. Some of that information is in the presentation.
The World Economic Forum says creativity, ideation, innovation, problem-solving, critical thinking, and analysis will serve you well in your business and career over the next five years. I want to help people to develop those skills by applying them in real world situations.
What I’m Reading/Read
- To Serve and Protect, Remington Kane (This is book 39 in a series and I’ve read all of them. This book came out on Tuesday and I devoured it already.)
I dipped into a lot of books to update blog posts I wrote 10 years ago, and to grab information for the course I created. It’s about going into a book to get what you need. Next week I’ll be digesting a book a day in preparation for the next course I’ll be creating. I have some books I’m looking forward to reading.
- No-Fail Habits, Michael Hyatt
- High Performamnce Habits, Brendon Burchard
- Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg
Blog Post of the Week
Margaret Knight, Inventor (Invented Machine to Make Paper Bags): This blog post is about Margaret Knight who invented the machine that makes paper bags. She’s such an inspiration and a big problem solver.
How to Generate Creative Ideas to Solve Any Problem: I mentioned that I’m creating my first course for the membership site. This blog post, introduces what I’ve learned from many creativity models. It will help you with your reading this week and next to learn problem solving. I got some excellent feedback on this post.
The Invisible Mentor Resources and Merchandise
On the Resources page of my website, I list a number of tools that I use. You’ll find e-zines to subscribe to, to get notified of free and heavily discounted books. I’ve saved a ton of money doing this. You’ll find book recommendations, other bookish tools and resources. On this same page, you’ll find some of my company merchandise. Your patronage would mean a lot to me.
New Service
For a couple of years, professionals have been asking me if I offered coaching or mentoring on effective reading and learning strategies. I created a service where I offer two hours of my time. I’ll teach you reading and learning strategies. Additonally we’ll talk about your learning goals. At the end of our time togther, you’ll have a Personal Learning Development Plan. I have one of these on my wall to remind me of my learning goals. Book Mentor: 2 Hours Coaching Time. This is a brain accelerator program. I’m only scheduling three each month.
MoreReads
For this program, you will learn the skills the World Economic Forum says you need to succeed. However, you’ll learn a lot more. This is a brain accelerator program where you engage in guilt-free reading. It’s designed for you to get a monthly pool of ideas to apply to your business or career. What is one good idea worth to you?
I have a corporate version of MoreReads. I’ve been doing informational interviews. Based on what I learned, I’m in the process of revamping the program. I was advised to have a six-month, 12-month and cadilac version of the program for corporate clients. I’m working on that now.
Until next time!
Avil Beckford, Founder, The Invisible Mentor