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Books are gems. Reading books expands your mindset and has the potential of changing your life. It has been touted that successful people read a certain number of books per year but this is just half the story because there are many book smarts who haven't found success. Just reading books isn't the recipe for success!
When you read a book, you immerse yourself in the mind of the author absorbing the knowledge that has been written. This are often concepts and ideas, it's up to you whether it makes sense and you want to apply them or not. Knowing many things is good, applying what you know is great.
Here are 3 Skills that you can't learn just from reading books.
1. Reading People
There are many nuances that happen in social interactions that books can't teach you. You can read all the books about psychology and human behavior but it's only when you have the experience that it sticks with you. Sitting at home reading a book about psychology wouldn't make you one, even if you read the book a 100 times. You have to be out there interacting with people. Noticing their facial expression, body movement and tone of voice. This things can't really be taught, they have to be caught.2. Handling Pressure
How do you handle pressure? A crisis or been in death ground? Like most people, they blank out, become unresponsive or just run away from it. No matter how much you think you're prepared for it, the experience always blows you away. All the advice or suggestions you're given falls away, leaving you strictly alone with it. Books can't teach you this skill, it's only when you go through it over and over again, developing a 'thick skin' with every new experience.The first time a gun is pointed at you will be quite intense and the second time will probably be less intense. By the third time, it means little and it will mean nothing by the tenth time. Why? Because now you've learnt how to handle the pressure, you've develop a thick skin.
3. Instinct and Intuition
Instinct is mainly a reaction to something happening around your environment and intuition is to take a specific action without any rational thought process.Here, Books fall flat on the ground because you can only develop this skill in real life. Each person already has a basic skill of this to some extent and it can be fine tuned. The more you use it-through the various experiences you have-the more developed it becomes.
Take the example of boxing, you have to be in the ring throwing punches, keeping an eye on the movements of your opponent, reacting swiftly to dodge punches and make counter moves. Most sports are purely pratical and require a good dose of instincts and intuition if you want to become great at it.
Conclusion
There are lot of people that think by just going to school they can become successful when they grow up. But when you finish school and get thrust into the real world, you see a very different picture. Why is that so many people who come out of college or university make less than six figures? The education system doesn't prepare you for the current world we live in, it's generations behind.When i started my journey, I made the mistake of reading a ton of books thinking that I was getting somewhere. In reality, I was not. Scheming and making moves in your head doesn't mean you're progressing.
In a way, this skills can be taught but you have to have the desire to catch it, If you don't have the willingness to learn you won't be able to acquire this skills.
Some things can't be taught, they can only be caught and the best place to do that is out there in the real world.
