Confession: I’ve only read a few of the Strength and Fitness “required reading” books. And I mean read cover to cover, not Audible ;). I think I started with Building The Gymnastic Body circa 2009, as Gymnastics was my main interest at the time. Then Good Calories, Bad Calories, Starting Strength, Becoming A Supple Leopard, Olympic Weightlifting, Daring Greatly, and Never Split The Difference. Category breakdown: Gymnastics, Strength, Mobility, Strength, Mindset, Mindset/Sales. They’re honestly about all I’ve practically found useful with respect to written knowledge for 12+ years in the fitness industry. Other materials have been largely redundant. Read them if you’d like a decent start in the functional fitness and health domain.
Or don’t. Books upon books, it seems like there’s always a new one and not enough time in the week. If you have an insatiable appetite for knowledge, more books equals more knowledge, and reading can be a never ending, rewarding process to expand your horizons.
But if you’re trying to solve a problem, more knowledge isn’t always better. It can even be detrimental, as weighing different pieces of information can lead to fatigue and inaction. I always refer back to my original business mentor’s line about the process of picking up a new book: “if you haven’t arrived at different actions you are going to take in your life based on the info presented within the first hour, stop reading.”
This is because there is simply too much information for an individual to process, we are saturated in it. And if you have a finite amount of time *and* are in a situation that calls for making changes within a finite period (e.g. health consequences if you don’t act, or business consequences affecting your bottom line this month), every minute spent on a “just for fun” piece of knowledge is one that could be spent on something else that will enable real change in your life. The basic Opportunity Cost concept.
So what you need isn’t just more knowledge, it is enough of the correct, evidence-based knowledge, and the wisdom to know how to apply it properly in the context of your life right now. Wisdom is Power. Even a great idea isn’t always actionable if it’s not the right time, or if you’re already fully occupied and engaged such that more to-do would dilute your ability to fulfill your existing to-do.
You need a filter, an editor, and probably a mentor too. We still have a business mentor and group that we pay for each month, not because there’s always amazing new ideas that add so much value to our business and lives — which there sometimes are — but simply because I believe enough in the mentorship model and have seen it work, that even if I know what to do already, having someone I trust reality-check my ideas and hold me accountable is… almost invaluable. In any given month, prioritization of one or two things among the many great ideas that are available is the greater challenge. That’s what a mentor can help with.
The opposite of scarcity is not abundance, it’s enough. Read enough, learn enough, practice enough to reach your goals, focus on quality of action over sheer quantity of information, and find someone you trust to act as a filter and prioritizer of your actions. Action is the ultimate truth.
Coach Mauricio