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Top Reading List For Your 40’s

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Top Reading List For Your 40’s

Your 40’s can be a pivotal time in your life! For many, maybe even the best times with the most stability. Many have just overcome the hectic younger years of paying off college debt, raising their first child, and purchasing their first home. It’s a time where you can finally start to relax and enjoy your days.

Keep Learning

Your 40’s are still a great time to continue to learn and set yourself up for more future success. This is the best time to secure your retirement, plan ahead, and tie up any loose ends. A great way to to master all you wish to master in your 40’s is by using a great how to guide.

The Ultimate Guide

Books can be a great tool to teach yourself new things all the way from cooking, saving, to even mastering a new skill. There are plenty of great books out there full of knowledge which can help you glide through your 40’s. Here are just a few of them:

The list

1. How Much Money Do I Need to Retire? By Todd Tresidder (2020, Second Edition)

This book focuses on both the financial and non financial aspects of retirement planning.

2.Refire! Don’t Retire: Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life By Ken Blanchard

This book is all about how to make the second half of your life meaningful and purposeful.

3.Long-Term Care: How to Plan & Pay for It Thirteenth Edition by Joseph Matthews Attorney 

This books encompases all the ins and outs of long-term care from Hybrid long term care insurance policies to traditional plan.

4. Your Money Life: Your 40s By Peter Dunn

This book goes over how to save, spend, and choose a financial advisor in your 40’s.

Reading Habits

How to Develop Better Reading Habits

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How to Develop Better Reading Habits

Books are an important source of information and entertainment.   Reading of books is also important because it assists in improving memory, focus, and concentration.  Although there are very many benefits of reading, a lot of people are struggling with the development of a reading habit.  To assist you with this, the article will highlight some tricks that should assist you to develop a reading habit.

1.Create a List of Books You Want to Read

Before you start reading you need to identify the motivation that you have to read.  Why do you want to read? By identifying why you want to read then you will be in a position to choose the books to read wisely.

When you are choosing the books to read, you should find books that will educate you about your profession, hobbies and even how to deal with relationships. Also, you should create a list of books that will entertain you. Your choice of books should motivate you to read.

2.Create Time for Reading

When people have a bad reading habit, they normally site the fact that they have no time to read. Unless you set a time to read you will find that you are too busy.  Devote a few minutes to reading.  The time that you choose should be free from any distraction.  Make sure you turn off your mobile devices, the internet, TV and anything else that can be a distraction to your reading.  When you create time and eliminate any distraction, you will be creating a sense of importance and relevance to the practice.

3.Make Reading Time an Enjoyable Time

You need to make your reading time a time that you are looking forward to.  You should make yourself very comfortable. You can also line up some treats that you will have during your reading time.   You need to make this time one of the best times during the day.

 4.Create Your Reading Goals

If you want to develop a reading habit, then you need to set a goal.  Identify the number of books that you would want to read within a specific period. The goal should be realistic.  You also need to break down the goal to the number of paragraphs that you would want to read every reading session. By creating a goal and actually achieving the goal, you get motivated to read the more.

5.Become More Active in Your Reading

To motivate yourself to read, you need to read more actively. Highlight passages that you find to be interesting and discuss what you learn from the book. When you are able to discuss what you read you will be motivated to read more.

6. Join a book club or get a reading partner

You should look for a book club or a reading partner to whom you will be accountable to. Since you are new at this, it may be very hard for you to be disciplined.   Joining a book club gives you people to whom you will be accountable to.  However, do not just join any book club. Look for a partner or a club where they read books that you are interested in. 

7.Read a Book to Someone Else

You can read more if you make time to read to someone else.  You can read to your child or even a friend.  If you find someone who is willing to listen to you and they are fascinated by the book that you are reading to them, then you will have a reading assignment that will allow you to develop a disciplined reading routine.

8.Carry Your Book Everywhere

Carry the book your reading everywhere. You do not have to physically carry the book; you can have it in soft copy so that you can have it on your phone or any other portable gadget that you may carry around.  This allows you to read anytime that you get an opportunity.

Reading books is a healthy habit.  But it can be very difficult to develop a reading habit because of the distractions that you may face and also the lack of time.  The article provides practical techniques that you can use to develop a consistent reading habit.  

Books

8 Life Lessons Books Everyone Should Read

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8 Life Lessons Books Everyone Should Read

Reading is very important.  It assists you to gain knowledge in different areas of life. For instance, reading can assist you in your profession and also in the management of your relationships.  There are a variety of books on the market. However, there are specific books that have been found to be life-changing and they include:

1.    Poor Dad Rich Dad

This is a book written by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter.  The book emphasizes the importance of financial literacy and the relationship that financial literacy has with the creation of wealth.  The book assists people to understand the importance of managing money with more emphasis on the importance of buying assets and reducing liabilities.

The book also educates parents on the type of relationship that they should assist their child to develop with money.  The book has life lessons about money and wealth creation that everyone should read.

2.    The Four Agreements

Miguel Ruiz is the author of the four agreements. The writer discusses how an individual can achieve personal freedom.  It provides a checklist that people should use when they are encountered by problems.  The writer states that people should avoid gossiping and making things personal. The second agreements state that people should avoid making assumptions and they should give every task that they handle their best.   The book is life-changing because it provides techniques in which an individual can solve any personal problem.

3.    The hidden brain

The unconscious has always had an influence on the way of life. The writer Shankar Vedantam explains the role of unconscious bias and how it plays part in the type of decisions that people make on a daily basis. The book enlightens its readers on how you to believe the system will shape your decisions.

4.    The Heroines Journey

This is a book that is written to mentor and motivate women. A lot of books have documented the success of men but this book documents the success of a woman who is ambitious and aggressive.  The book indicates what women go through in their search for success.   Every woman should read the book to prepare themselves for what it will take for them to be successful.

5.    The Art of Thinking Clearly

People make decisions on a daily basis. But how many of these decisions are made on a sober mind.  There are a lot of psychological issues that influence the decisions that people make. If you want to make quality decisions, then you should read the book.  The book is written by a great entrepreneur Rolf Dobelli who has interacted with people of all kinds and developed an understanding of the psychological issues that influence decision making.

6.    The Gifts of Imperfection

People have a perception of who they think they should be.  This leads to low self-esteem because they are always working to become who they think they should be. This continuous disapproval of who they are is not healthy. The book addresses the importance of self-love and how one can develop a love for self. The book will provide you with information that will assist you to transform your life.

7.    7 Habits of Highly Effective People

This book was published in 1990 and to date, it is still one of the best sellers.  It indicates the behaviors that promote success.  This book assists in professional and personal development.  The book begins by addressing how one can change their mindset and what needs to be done to become effective.  The pointers provided in the book have been tested and they have been found to be very effective in the development of efficiency.

8.    To kill a Mocking Bird

To kill a mocking bird is a classic. It was published in the early 60s and it still remains a dear book to many. The book looks into human behavior. The author also addresses delicate topics that include hatred, hypocrisy, prejudice, and love. There is a lot of comedy that is used in the book to make the issues addressed light.

Reading is very important. However, you need to know the right books to read. The article has highlighted some of the books that will offer you transformational life lessons.   

Concentration

7 Ways to Strengthen Your Concentration and Focus

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7 Ways to Strengthen Your Concentration and Focus

Concentration is important for productivity and an easier life.  However, a lot of people are unable to master two skills. If you are experiencing low productivity and you would want to improve on your focus and concentration, try out the seven techniques discussed below:

1.    Set And Define Your  Goal

 For you to concentrate on a task, you need to know what it entails.  Break down the task so that you can have bite-size tasks.  Once you have these tasks, you should define the time in which you want to start and end these tasks.

  One of the issues that influence your level of concentration is motivation.  When you do not have a clear direction on how to handle a task, you are bound to be demotivated. By having clear goals you will be motivated to achieve them.

2.     Optimize your Surrounding

One of the reasons why you may fail to concentrate is your environment.  You should not have any distraction. Among the things that may distract you is discomfort.  Ensure that your seat and table are comfortable. It is too hot or too cold you may also get distracted. So you need to ensure that you regulate the temperatures in the room.

Secondly, you need to remove any distractions. There are two types of distraction, internal and external distractions.  Internal distractions come from your mind while external distractions come from your environment. Therefore, it is always prudent to remove any distraction that will rob you of an opportunity to concentrate on your work.

 Set a good tone and mood in your working environment. For instance, look for music that can actually help you concentrate. You can also get images, whichever suits you.

Clean and de-clutter your working space. If your office is dirty, then you are probably going to be distracted.  Ensure that your working space is organized to avoid you from feeling overwhelmed.

3.    Nutrition and Exercise

 It is absolutely difficult to concentrate when you are hungry. Also, the brain only works if it has the right nutrients.  So, you need to eat well and it is recommendable to take a lot of healthy fats because research has found that the human is composed of 60 % fat and it needs fat to operate optimally.

You also need to have a healthy workout routine.  When you work out you increase the blood flow which will allow you to start your day off with enthusiasm.  However, you should only engage in simple work out routines to prevent the probability of getting tired even before you start working.

4.    Avoid Multitasking

 To increase productivity, you have to focus on one task at a time. It can be very tempting to multitask.  But in a lot of cases, multitasking leaves a lot of projects halfway done which reduces the level of motivation and focus.   When you complete a task, your mind is always motivated to perform another but if you have a lot of uncompleted assignments then you will find that your mind will be demotivated.

  Focus means diverting all your resources to a task to have it done. So multitasking is against the principle of focus and concentration. So if you want to assist your mind to develop focus, then avoid multitasking and allocate time for each task.

5.    Stay In the Moment

 A lot of people suffer from poor concentration because they are thinking of the past or the future. This can be very distracting.  When you concentrate on the current moment then your mind is able to harness all the mental resources that are in their disposal and these resources are used to deal with the issue that is on the table.

6.    Avoid boredom

 When you are a handling a task that you are not passionate about, you are bound to get bored.  Also, when you handle a task that does not challenge you then you will be demotivated and bored. Since you have to complete the task, try and entertain yourself. For instance, you can try to chew on gum or have your favorite music playing as you work.

Focus and concentration are important in your workplace and also in your personal life.  You should know how to train your mind to be focused on. The article provides some of the techniques that you can use to develop mental focus and concentration.