The Amazing Thing About Life

The amazing thing about life is that you never know how good you'll feel. Many times I have been gravely depressed and downtrodden, only to arrive at a revelation which left me...awestruck. Like today for instance. I had gone downtown to fix an issue with my rent. It was a beautiful day out, and I had brought a book along for the long journey from my home to downtown. But something happened just as I arrived downtown. I finished the book. It was an amazing feeling. Not because I would stop reading, but because I had reached my own personal level of mastery. I've finished reading over 200 books so far, and every time I finish one there is just a rush of excitement. It's amazing what a small accomplishment during the day can do. I can think of few things that fill me with such joy. What's so special about reading? Well first of all, it's transformative. Filling your mind with knowledge is a sure way to create new opportunities in your life that will never be taken away. You can do things you could never do before, if you practice what you've learned. And the best part is that if you like the subject, there are always other books in the same or similar subject for you to try. I remember a book I read called Growth Inc., by Herb Rubenstein and Tony Grundy. It was basically an in-depth guide for those who want to grow a business. The amazing thing about this book was that it made so much sense. I had never read anything to spoke to my intellect the way that this book did. It had so many common sense solutions for an age-old problem. Growing a business. Interacting with the public at large. Making beneficial partnerships in your industry. It was amazing what I was learning. And it was all true, in its own way. The teachings of that book wouldn't help me until years later, but they set the stage for what would be my most prosperous five years. That's what books do. In the beginning, I wouldn't read. I do remember reading a lot of Goosebumps books as a child; that, and the Choose Your Own Adventure fare. I remember something happening to me in my college days that turned that all around. I felt that my life was in danger and I wanted to make a change, before it was too late. My first solution was to start reading. I read and read. Almost every singly day that first year I read something. In every book I read, I found something useful. I actually read a book about Napoleon, which really was amazing. The Napoleonic wars were a circuitous, wildly confusing situation which led to immense suffering on all sides. To this day, all of the different ways that those wars went, it fills me with confusion. I mean, how could staunch allies turn on each other, each siding with the enemy in turn?