Latest / The Uplift- with Luke Pollock / #19 - Solo Pod - The Power of Reading and Books Recommendations
Transcript
- Luke Pollock: Hello and welcome back to the Uplift. I'm back with another solo pod today. It's me, Luke. Um, so you'll just be listening to my voice for the next 15 or 20 minutes talking about what I've learned recently from running an online business, being self-employed and from just life in general. Um, I make this podcast because it's what I wish I had 12 months ago, two years ago, even three years ago. I'm sharing these lessons because. there lessons that I wish I had learned a little bit earlier I'm happy I've learned now. So yeah, no real agenda for today's podcast. It's just there's been quite a lot of my mind recently about being self-employed, which I'm going to share a full podcast on the pros and cons of what I have found self-employment to be because there's definitely a lot of cons and I am realizing this more and more. The cons are becoming more evident as they go on the stresses are, and you quickly forget how far you've come. It's that idea of there's a book called the gap and the gain. And often tend to in the gap where we are not yet. So we're living in this gap between where we are now and where we want to go. And we're constantly fixating on that gap. rather than actually living in the game, which is living in the past and where you've come from and what you have achieved in such a short period of time. And it's incredibly helpful to live in the game, to think about that you've achieved and how far you've come in terms of months and years, but also in terms of yesterday. So for example, today I created a reel and tidied up my email marketing, which wasn't a thing yesterday. I just created that today, but I didn't make any money today. And I know where I want to go in terms of finances. So it feels like a frustrating day for me in some ways. This is sort of a theme of When you're not making money, you feel like, well, when I'm not making money, I feel like, ⁓ dear, I haven't made any money today. Therefore, am just unemployed? What am I doing? How is this month going to look, et cetera? But when you live in the ⁓ you realize every day you're moving forward slightly. ⁓ more than you were yesterday, even if that's not financially, even if that's just developed as a person or as a business owner, or developed the systems within your business to make your life easier in future, you're still moving forward to trying to live more in the game, which is not something I thought I was actually going to talk about today. But here we go. I'm just going to riff whatever sort of comes to my mind today. I do have some book recommendations that we're going to go through. So if you're into books, stick around for If you're not into books, I would say that reading books is probably the thing that's changed my life the most since leaving school. That separated my thinking from maybe some of my peers yeah, has opened my eyes the Obviously I grew up reading lots of books, mainly the Bible, and I thought it was quite heavy and it was always something that you should do ⁓ and something was reserved for who like to read and good readers. There were people who read in school and people who didn't. And the sportier guys normally didn't. So I always thought, no, it's not really for me. But then I realized I just hadn't found the right book the right thing that interests me. So in lockdown, when COVID hit, I started picking up books and started reading them. And most of the books I picked up were actually finance books. I remember reading ⁓ Dad, Poor Dad in like two days over lockdown. And I remember thinking, I've actually finished a book, a full book. And was so crazy to me, the concepts I was learning in that book. And I found it really interesting. And normally I was being, know, I was that guy who would be in, in skip to the end of the book, find out how many pages I had left to read, and then find out how many days that would take me to reach the end of the book rather than just ⁓ enjoy book for what it is. So yeah, speaking to all the non-readers here. If you are that person, if you're trying to start books so you can finish them, I would challenge you on that. That is like the way we've been taught in school. And maybe the way your parents have taught you about books, start a new one until you finish the old one, but this is not a helpful mindset to have. If a book is not serving you, be selfish ⁓ that. Okay, so I normally stick with books for about 50 or 100 pages. And if either I feel like I've got the main concepts from the book or the is not gripping me, then I will set it down. just like I would set a TV show down or a podcast on if I felt like, okay, I understand a bit what they're saying here and now they're just repeating themselves. Or this really isn't for me. I'd be very quick to set those things aside. But when it's a book, we treat them like they are precious and like higher and that we need to respect them. So we need to read them all because someone spent time writing this. But ultimately there's so many books in the world that are for you and that you should read. that you should not spend your time wasting your time on a book that's not for you. You should quickly decipher, is this for me? Is this serving me? Am I interested in this? Am I enjoying this? Because they are meant to be enjoyed as well. And if the answer is no to all of those, or at least some of those, then you should probably look for another book, because there's loads and loads of good ones out there. And I'm gonna talk about just a few. Now, there is a con to this, and I have been quite guilty of that, of like, I'm reading probably about five books at any one time, which, A lot of people find stressful, but I quite enjoy because like a TV show or like music, sometimes I'm in the mood for something a little bit more relaxing and chilled out. So for me at the minute, that's Lord of the Rings. other times I'm in the mood for something business related, maybe a problem I want to solve. So I will just pick up my Kindle. I've got loads of different business books on there. And I sort of have a mental library of, you know, Russell Bronson book might talk about something different. to, yeah, an Alex or Mozi book that actually quite similar, but my different, I have different library of books which speaks to different problems in my business. So I can just pick those up, read a chapter, set it back down. Now this is probably gonna stress some people out just listening to that thinking of that around books, but ⁓ how I've actually got the most from them. That's how I signed like I know a lot about certain topics without necessarily having read the whole book. I've just got the main premise of the book. Okay. So a book like Atomic Habits, extremely gripping, extremely easy to read, but there is one premise. And that you are the base of your habits and that you should implore good habits over bad habits. Right? Now, if you went, there's loads ⁓ I love that book. So it's maybe a bad example, but you could gain the main premise of that book in the first 150 pages. Everything else is just icing on the cake. So you were finding that boring after 150 pages, just set it down and move on. And the reason I'm getting so pernickety and sticky on books because it is genuinely life changing. If you get it right, if you find books that you like, and then you maybe broaden your horizons a little bit. So maybe you start like fantasy or murder mystery or something like that. And then you think, ⁓ maybe I'll read on history or I'll read something business or personal development or You'll expand your categories of books and that will expand and grow your mind. So you won't just, you'll no longer be in 2026 all the just consuming what social media is feeding you. You will be for a period of your day in where that was. During that time period, you'll be in the second world war or you'll be in business 20 years ago. What was happening at that time? You can, you can almost like transport to that place and tech learnings from, from that time as well. Books really powerful. ⁓ I them. They've changed. I would, ⁓ not where I am ⁓ with, I hadn't developed a reading habit. And I would also highly recommend a Kindle to be honest. I just don't really get the whole. ⁓ but I like feeling the physical pages. I think that you're probably in reading a book for the wrong reasons. If you are more in it for feeling ⁓ feeling of reading a book rather than the information of a book and actually getting dug into the book and stuck in the book. Because when you're in a book, ⁓ wouldn't really care what it smells like or what the pages feel like. You'll be so in the book. Like when you're in a movie, it doesn't really matter if you're in the cinema or on your sofa. You're in the movie, you know. But yeah, maybe that's just me being boring like old and just very practical because I actually do. I do quite like physical books sometimes and I really like collecting them, but they're just cheaper on Kindle and easier to take everywhere. Anyway, I'm rambling. Book that I've been reading, listening to actually. I haven't been reading this one, but I've been listening to it, which for me provides a lot of the same value. Although I recommend reading physically. part of me, do also listen to books regularly and that's probably how I've consumed the most amount of books just because it's really practical. So book I've been reading recently is called The Artist's Way and this a very famous book. The Artist's Way by, ⁓ I should really heard it's by something Cameron and I'm not gonna it up now, but anyway, The Artist's Way, great book. And one of the main of this book is rediscovering your ability to create art and to engage with art. And one of the activities she does or she suggests everyone, everyone does all the readers of her book is an activity called morning pages. And initially this sounds a bit woefully like, Oh, what's this going to be some like journal that I have to commit to. And it kind of is exactly that to be honest. Um, but I've just went with it. So it's three pages on broken on scripted writing as soon as you wake up in the morning is really, really difficult. And going to read you this quote from the book. And this sort of why she promotes the morning pages is the thing. And you know, when you just find one of those habits, you're like, I'm definitely going to get something from this and I'm going to stick with it, even though it's not easy. There's something enjoyable it. That was honestly, I haven't got that from, from loads of things recently, cause I tried loads of different like the morning hacks or whatever. I've tried them all, like cold charge, et cetera, et cetera. ⁓ tried loads of different things, but I haven't had a feeling like this in a while, but ⁓ just the right level of discomfort and difficulty. And practically, to be fair, it's practically quite hard, but I'm gonna make time for it in my life. And it's one of those things that I feel will be worth making time for. So yeah, the quote, pages clarify our yearnings. They keep an eye on our goals. They may provoke us, coax us, comfort us, even cajole us, as well as prioritize and synchronize the data hand. If we are drifting, the pages will point that out. They will point out the way, the true north. Each morning we face the page, we meet ourselves. The pages give us a place to vent and a place to dream. They are intended for new eyes, but our own. So yeah, that's the whole premise. You get up, write three pages. What's that word? Kajol? Kajol? Yeah, I think it's Kajol. Kajolus. You get up, write three pages unbroken. It's taking me about 25 to 30 minutes because I'm in a little note pad. So it's not quite like an A4 page. And the first three mornings were incredibly difficult, like physically uncomfortable to sit there and write for 30 minutes. My hand was cramping up a lot. My shoulders were really tense. I was just physically really uncomfortable. And I thought this is really stupid. I'm not going to keep doing it. But today I think it's morning five or six of me doing it. honestly, I kept writing. Like I did four pages today because I was just in a bit of a flow of ⁓ And I think it benefits me so much because as soon as I wake up, I feel behind already. So me, there's a, there's a long list of things I need to do, which I haven't done every morning as soon as I wake up, no matter what morning it is, right? ⁓ Even it's a Saturday, I'm like, I've got to do this, this, this, this, this before my game there. And then after the game, I've got to pack this, this and this. So it's just the way my mind works, unfortunately. Or fortunately, whatever way you look at it. But yeah, the morning pages has been really good to help me slow down, to help me put all that on a page, and to let me write as I think. And that's when you know you've got it, when you're not writing what you think you should, but you're writing your thoughts as they come to you. Very cool And it's made me appreciate days a lot more as well. So yeah. Give that a go. If you do give a go, let me know how you find it. The morning page is something that I'm a big fan of at the minute and I hope that I will keep going with it. I'm sure, you know, I'm sure there's going to be like everything else, period where I do it well and a period where I don't, but it's definitely going to be something that I implore over the next little while. Because I think you also need to do it for at least three months before you really start to reap the benefits of it. yeah, for me, it's just past the early stages of lots of discomfort and then it's just been nice to, vent on the page. Yeah. book then ⁓ called open by Andre Agathie Agathie or Agathie, whatever you want to call it. the, the old tennis player who was before my time, but yeah, this book I read ages ago and I just thought about it before recording this podcast as for athletes, any athletes reading this or any athletes listening to this right now, who are aspiring athletes. you might think you want to be someone, but we don't really know what that person is and what they're going through. So you might think you want to be like a professional rugby player or professional footballer or professional tennis player yeah, any of these superstars because their life seems easy, but this book is a really good open insight into what's actually going on. And another good lesson, like he's just so open in the book and Yeah, he pretty much he hates tennis and he has to do it as his job. So it kind of sounds terrible, but he's obviously winning lots. He's making lots of money, but it's, like he's created his own prison for himself. I would really, really, yeah, advise you to go read it because it's so easy for us to want certain aspects of someone's life. Like we can think you want to be, you know, you want to be Tiger Woods, but you don't actually want to be Taggart. It's because you don't want to go through the abuse he went through when he was a kid. And the trauma he has to carry on now. want to be like Agassi, but you don't actually because every day he's waking up feeling like he was a slave to this own prison that he created himself. So we want to, we want certain parts of that person's life without taking on the whole person, which doesn't because The things that I have, like the trauma that Tiger Woods went through is probably the reason why he's so good because that probably drove him more. So we can't, we can't pick and choose little parts of different people's lives and aspire to be them or, or envy them or be jealous of them. And the book is just cool because it shows you how, tough sport is even at the professional level and how I think of him when I'm feeling really broken and going to play rugby, like my body's in bits. I think of the opening chapter of that book. So just go read it. won't spoil it. go read it because it's one of the best opening chapters of a book I've ever read and it gripped me immediately. And after that opening chapter, there was no question whether I was going to finish this book or not. You know, to me, that's a good book. That's what we should spend our time reading. know, from that book. Now that I've won a slam, I know something very few people on earth are permitted to know. A win doesn't feel as good as a loss feels bad. And the good feeling doesn't last as long as the bad. It's not even close. Wow. What a good quote. And so true, so relevant, um, to my life, even at the minute when like with black youth, my team were going into the final playoff and it feels good. Like it feels really, really good to win, but it feels way worse to lose or always tells like we've won 11 games in a row now, but I can still, I can't remember each of those 11 games, but I can remember each of the losses I've been involved with this year and personal losses hurt a lot more than personal wins do. feel good, if that makes sense. So when I play badly, I'll remember that game for, for like for the rest of my life, probably if it's bad enough, but the best games you kind of, you it's good for that week and then you move on, you know? Um, so yeah, this is just the reality of sport. He's got loads of quotes in the book like this, which are just like, wow, is this guy a writer or a tennis player? You know, it turns out he's both. He's an artist. Hey, the artist way. Um, Yeah, so would highly recommend that book. yeah, it's just beautifully written. And it's very, very honest as well. Okay, next book, the obstacle is the way this is the last one I'm going to recommend. Because if you're injured, if you're rehabbing at the minute, this is really relevant. It's also relevant to everyone who isn't. And it's relevant to me at the minute because yeah, this past month, so ⁓ get my tiny violin out. So my first month of self-employment went super, super well, way better than I thought it would. Like financially I was flying. I was like, well, I've made way more money than I did in my day job. This is class. And it felt like I was working less, I had time to socialize, rugby was going well, et cetera. Then May hit and things are really like slowed up income wise. Um, it's been frustrating. I've had a lot of cancellations. I've had people on call then cancel. It's just been, it's been tougher. May has been tougher so far. And this book, when I in my room and I've got it here with me, looking at my bookshelf, I thought this is actually a really good book for now. yeah, it speaks to much not only are obstacles helpful for us, for our lives, because they shape us ⁓ and we from them and it's good to look back on. But it actually that step further ⁓ and... It shows us that the obstacles are actually how you get anywhere. So they are the way through. Like I know obviously the title is the obstacle is the way, it's taking it a layer deeper that, ⁓ you learn everything in your tough times, but no, ⁓ need to go through the tough times to, to, to grow and get to the point, the period where you're going. So you actually need to go through that ACL operation to become the player that you're going to be, but you just can't see that right now. ⁓ So this book's a really good read if you're in that place, if you're struggling with something in particular, if you're going through an obstacle, you actually need that obstacle to prepare you for what's to come. And the obstacle is the opportunity for now. The obstacle is the way. So there's so many examples I could give, but let me give you a bit of a trivial one. So this podcast, for example, this podcast episode might get 20 listens, right? But that is the way I go. If this podcast got 400 listens or 4,000 listens or 400,000 listens, I would feel like I had arrived. Okay. I maybe, you know, that that's not an obstacle that you're arriving at the point. The obstacle, the minute is I get and sit in front of this mic in this camera every week and maybe not that many people listen. Okay. That's an obstacle. but is actually the way to improve and it's the way to get 4,000, 400,000 listens because I'm doing this because right now it's a bit harder. Later on, when more people listen, it'll be easier and the snowball will continue to roll. You see what I mean? Also the injury, okay? For me an injury has been always an opportunity to find out more about my athletes and what they're going through and it's also been an opportunity to find out more about my own body and how it responds to different things. find out how much I actually appreciate being back on the pitch when I'm back there, which will allow me to play better, which will allow me to more games, which will allow me to make more money, maybe get signed a better contract, et cetera, et cetera. So the obstacle is the way. It not that obstacles are only helpful if we look at them in a helpful way, but obstacles actually more than shape us and we need them to progress life. If you have easy life. If you have a straightforward time, you're never going to get anywhere pretty much. The obstacle is the way. That's why even if you're really fortunate and blessed, you should still do really hard things because it is the way to improve. It is the way to get better. Actually really randomly. I watched a YouTube video on in the 1980s, this guy, I forget his name, but he set rats up in this ideal climate. Okay. So they all have their own room. They all have their own food, like unlimited food, unlimited water. And what happened was, and they never had to do anything all day. So they had food, water, they all had plenty of room. Okay. off being like 10 rats and then it got to like two, like 2000 or something. And the capacity of the place was like two and a half thousand. Before it reached capacity, the rats started to die because they lost purpose because they didn't do anything. And the rats that were born in the ideal environment, okay, so they never had to look for food. They never had to, you know, fight for a bad, they never had to do any of this stuff. They were called like the perfect generation and they appeared slightly different color to the rest of them because they never had, they were never fighting one another, et cetera. They were just always tranquil and peaceful or so it seemed from the outside, ⁓ they actually died as well, because they didn't have purpose and they didn't have anything to do all day. and they never had any like strength or hardship pretty much. And the experiment found out that if we give society just comfort, which we all think we want, we all think we want comfort, no job, nothing to do all day, then people wouldn't actually thrive. It's not an ideal climate for society. So that's a little example and it just came to my head. And it's quite random that I watched that and hadn't actually put two and two together. But yeah, and I... Could have explained the rat video better, but pretty much it was not, it was not pretty sight. The rats started dying. They started trying to eat each other, et cetera, because they were really confused about their, their purpose in the cage in their like environment cage is doing it disservice. It looked pretty nice. Um, little rat empire, but yeah, I think that is all for now. So the obstacle is the way, um, really, really great book opened by Andrea as well. Really, really good book. and the artist way. The artist way is something I'm going to probably do a whole episode on at some point because it's something that I'm exploring a lot more. You know, my own art form, what is it? Is it podcasting? Is it rehab? Is it all of them? I want me to be inside out a little bit more and rather than only being able to talk about things that I... I should talk about from a business perspective. I don't want to create my own prison, for example. And while I'm enjoying it, it's great, but maybe in a few years time, I won't enjoy only talking about ACLs. So I want to leave that door open. And obviously, episode has been completely different, and I'm going to do a lot more stuff like this. So if you enjoy this type of stuff, then please do let me know. ⁓ Those are really good books, and they will change your perspective on life and on things even. ⁓ in the immediate term, but I read these books, but the obstacles away and open. read these books three plus maybe four years ago and I'm still thinking about them. Okay. So they can really change the way you think they can expand your mind. They can grow the mind. so you're not, you're that guy who just, who thinks, this is the only way is there's no other way. yeah, it's really good to have a girl open mind to, towards loads of different things. yeah. So read books, read books, people. Thank you for listening as always. I really enjoy these solar pods. I'm going to be on with the guests next week. those will be back. If you have any questions off the back of this, please message me. I look public online. If not, just enjoy the episode. Leave me a little five star review as well. I've actually been getting quite a few of those and I really, yeah, it makes me happy. Podcast is my passion project. So I'm going to keep doing it every week, every Wednesday. Please enjoy it. I think most people listen on Thursday. So. Yeah, thank you so much for being one of early listeners and I will see you next week. Thank you.