7 Benefits of Listening to Audiobooks

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Audiobook Benefits in a Nutshell

Have you ever wondered if audiobooks have any benefits? What about what the benefits of audiobooks may be? If you answered yes to those questions I can tell you you’re in the right place. Sometimes it can be hard to sit down with a book for a half hour to an hour each day. One of the best ways to combat that is through the use of audiobooks. They are really a game changer when it comes getting your daily dose of book in.

Think about this for a minute, when was the last time you had a chance to read a book? When was the last time you asked someone what books they’ve been reading? The sad true is that we live in a time with access to information constantly but people don’t read as often as they could. You may be wondering what the real benefits of audiobooks are, I have found 7 that I think are most worthwhile.

1)  Audiobooks Are Easy To Listen To While Doing Other Tasks

This is pretty self explanatory but I’ll give you some examples. Audiobooks are great to use in place of music when you are doing things like driving, exercising, cleaning, cooking, or maybe even at work. You will be amazed at how many more books you can listen to when you start playing them all the time. This reason by itself makes audiobooks worth it. Imagine how nice it would be to listen to your favorite motivational book at the office or a thriller while you’re cleaning your house.

2) Audiobooks Are Great For Dyslexics

I came across this after talking with a few of my friends about books. I knew one of them was dyslexic but had never considered how it would affect how often they read. We were discussing how often someone should read and they complained about how difficult it was. I pointed out that audiobooks are a great alternative. They tried it out and became hooked on the idea of listening to audiobooks. The is also one of the benefits of audiobooks for students. I know people that struggled with textbooks because of dyslexia. Most schools offer software that will turn textbooks into audiobooks.

3) Listen To Them With Others

Listening to audiobooks with friends and coworkers has been a fun experience. It gives you a chance to hear other people’s opinions about a book. It is like going out to the movies. In the end everyone has the same ideas to talk about and it’s fun to dig into what could be going on in the background of the book’s universe. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was the first experience I had with how great audiobooks can be. After listening to that books with my coworkers we are all excited to go see the movie when it comes out. Fingers crossed that it will be a good one. 

4) Listening To Audiobooks While Reading The Book

This one sounds strange but it works out really well. Reading and listening to audiobooks at the same time gives you more things to remember. It ties into Edgar Dale’s cone of learning. That is an interesting topic that I can talk about another day. What you need to know is the more ways you do something and the more work it takes to do those things the easier it is to remember. I’ve used listening to the audiobook while reading the book to learn about stock options, real estate investing, stoicism, and starting a business. None of those topics are easy but I think listening to the audiobooks while I read helped me with retention. This is one of the biggest benefits to audiobooks.

5) More Simple Than Reading a Summary

Unless you are in a big rush to read through a summary for some reason audiobooks are a great option. It is painless to listen to a audiobook. On the other hand you could buy a summary which won’t give you all the details. An alternative would be to jump on Reddit. I know that great summaries can end up on Reddit but you have to be careful about what people are saying. It’s easy to leave out important details. If it were up to me when picking audiobooks vs reading Reddit, I’m going to go with an audiobook 9 times out of 10. There is a lot to be said about sticking with a community though and if you find the right one the users on Reddit will treat you right.

6) Audiobooks Are Great For Adults

The benefits of audiobooks for adults pretty much covers everything I’ve mentioned plus more. Adults are the largest group of people in the world. Many of them are limited on time. Not only that but as you get older your eyesight can decrease. Audiobooks counteract that because you can listen to them instead of reading them. Adults are also limited on time bringing back the benefits of listening while you do other things. It also ties into the last benefit I have to talk about.

7)  Adjustable Speed

One of the coolest benefits of audiobooks is that you can adjust the speed. I personally like to listen at anywhere from 1.5x to 2.5x speed. It all depends on how many times I’ve listened to the book, how the voice actors voice sounds sped up, and how hard to comprehend the books is. I usually recommend starting off at 1x to 1.5x and going from there when you are new to audiobooks. This is not the time to listen with your friends they will probably look at you weird when you start playing a chipmunk book at them.

The Benefits Are Real

As you can see there are many benefits to audiobooks. I’m sure if you sit there and think about it you can come up with a few more on your own. Now that you’re thinking about audiobooks you should check out Audible from Amazon. They seem to really know what they are doing. Once you started you’ll see that audiobooks are good for the brain. There aren’t too many other ways to have fun while you learn. It’s nice to know that you can listen with friends when you have a fun book or you can read along with a hard copy if it’s something more serious. Don’t forget how many audiobook benefits there are. Now get out there are start listening.

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Be Who You Want To Be

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Becoming the person you want to be

What does it mean to be who you want to be? Being who you want to be means going out and doing things for you. There is no one in this world that is more important in your life than yourself. Take the time to get to know who you are and who you want to be so you can be happy and live a fulfilled life. Knowing who you are is only half the battle. You have to fully understand yourself to make this concept work. Visualize who you want to be in the future. Now look at where you are now. If you don’t see the same person it’s time to get to work. If you do see the same person that’s awesome and you are probably already living your dream. Now let’s get back to what you need to do to be who you want to be.

There are going to be a few steps to finding yourself and growing into who you want to be. They aren’t hard steps and each one that you follow will get you closer to your dream life. Let’s take a look at what those steps are going to be.

Step 1) Take time to write down what you believe in

This step is about getting all of who you are on paper. You will need to thoroughly look at everything that makes you who you are and explain why you are like that. The smaller you can break things down the easier it will be to fine tune things in the future.

You will need to explain in detail why you believe the things you do and why you don’t believe in the things you don’t. This goes for your moral and ethical beliefs. It is easy to get caught up in the fast paced world but this is a time to sit down and really get to know yourself, think it through.

If you see something missing from your list you’ll need to create a seperate list. This new list is things to improve on. This will be very important in the next step.

Step 2) Look for places on your list that you can improve

This is the step when you start building your character and start becoming who you want to be. What it comes down to is taking your list of missing attributes and finding ways to add them to your life.

The best way to go about this step is to find a mentor that has experience and can teach you from their mistakes. Mentors can be anyone from the people around you to authors of books that you’ve read. Take the advice of others and take advantage of what has come before you.

Step 3) Focus on what you believe is right

You are going to be learning and exploring a ton of information while on the journey of becoming yourself. During this journey you will need to expand upon the things you believe are right in the world.  Adjust your life and surround yourself with like minded people. The more things you do to improve yourself the happier you will be.

An important part of learning is sharing knowledge. During this step you should seek out people that are willing and interested in learning from you. Teach them the ways of “being who you want to be” become the mentor that you sought out during Step 2.

Step 4) Become passionate about the things you enjoy

This is the last major step in being who you want to be. You may have hobbies or interests but this is the time to turn them into a passion. Passions are the easiest things to learn and the easiest things for you to teach. You can become passionate about improving skills that you previously lacked. This is the time to get involved with whatever you are passionate about. Volunteer time, teach others or spend more time on your hobby. Eventually your passion will be part of your life and people will know you for it. This circles around to being who you want to be because you are truly the person doing the things you enjoy and are passionate about.

Learning is the key to living your dream

The most important thing to take away from “being who you want to be” is to keep learning. The only way to ever progress in life is to continue your education. It doesn’t matter if it is school, reading books or getting a mentor that helps you learn new things. as long as you are improving your life you will be able to live your dream. Use the idea of “being who you want to be” as a stepping on your Pursuit of Excellence.