How to Work a Workbook in 2019

What do Mastering Witchcraft, The Four Hour Work Week, Modern Magick, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, and Liber Null and Psychonaut all have in common? They are all workbooks that I have worked through step by step, and which drastically helped transform my life.

As we approach New Years a lot of people look for a book to work through that will either help them fix whats broken or push take their game to the next level. It’s natural to head to the store and look for books that promise a framework for your efforts.

I have a few pieces of advice for those looking to work a workbook:

1. Spend some time in a bookstore rather than buying online. This is not just an anti-amazon “support your local” sentiment. Reviews are useless for this because apart from it being a good book, it has to be applicable to where you are right now. Sit down for an hour or so and actually flip through the books to get a sense of what is in them. Only buy the one that makes you go “Hell Yeah! I wanna do this!” If you are not excitedly scrambling to write down notes as you flip through that book in the store – skip it for now.
2. The one that is right for you right now, may not be loved by everyone. One of the people in the entrepreneurial world I respect most is Fabeku Fatunmise. When he says something, I listen HARD. However, he hates the Four Hour Work Week, and I love it. He has very good reasons for hating it but when I was a newly minted father of twins, on lunch break from my dead-end job, if I did not read that book I dont even want to think about what my life would look like today. For Tim Ferris himself, the book that got him going was “The Magic of Thinking Big”. It hit him hard when he needed it. It gave me a big “meh”.
3. Not all the advice in the book will be applicable to you. Sadly, some people get really pissed off when they read or hear advice that they are not in a position to take advantage of. This is not a reason to ditch the book. It’s REALLY not a reason to leave a 1 star review or have a flaming hissyfit online about how the investment book was for people who had money to invest or the witchcraft manual didn’t list your patron diety. Go in expecting that some advice will not be applicable. Adjust accordingly.
4. DO NOT skip things that think you don’t need to do. I talk to people about working through books and course all the time, and when I ask “did you do the exercise“, very often the answer is: “Well, I read it . I understood it. I got what it’s about.” Trust me, you don’t got it.  I don’t care if its 10 minutes of silent meditation, making a list of all your expenses for a week, taking a ritual bath, or asking for a phone number from a stranger: the kind of change you seek is made by DOING: not knowing, not reading, not believing. Action is king.
5. Ignore the Haters. “The only person that self-help books help is the author”. “You can’t learn from a book you need a teacher or to join an order...” Bull-Dinky! One of the dead end jobs I held before striking out on my own brought me into the homes of a lot of well-off people. Know what they had on their books? Workbooks about money, influence, self-improvement. When I would ask, many of them spoke passionately about how it helped them. Know who the best magicians I know learned from: books that they worked through. Yes, I had mentors and so did other people I know, but you get those mentors by starting the work yourself and learning enough to ask smart questions. Books are friggin great, don’t let anyone tell you different.
6. Take it to the next level. If the book is helpful, see what else the author has going on. The financial reality of the moment is that unless a book makes it to the NYT top 10, it’s probably not how the author makes their living. Courses, webinars, programs, podcasts, one-on-one consultations, etc. This is how you dig deep with the material that has already helped you while simultaneously supporting the author that you like so that they can continue teaching.

2019 approaches, so now is the time to prep for a fresh start on a new journey.