Reading Books vs Audiobooks. (Pro's and Con's)

For a little over 3 years now I have really gotten into learning from people that are where I want to be in life.  Whether it be through books, audiobooks, youtube, or even courses learning from people who are high achievers, and winners in life is something that has made a huge impact on my life.  It helps your mindset to take a shift from the normal life most people live to the prosperous life that these high achievers live.  It shows you ways you can work to get to their level.  Although I still have a long way to go to be at my highest level in life, the mindset that I have is that I can always learn from others.

Today I wanted to share with you the difference in books and audiobooks.  I hope this will help you learn which form of reading works best for you so you can accelerate the learning process in your life.

Regular Books

Let us start off talking about good old regular books.  The reasons I like reading an actual book that you can hold in your hand is because if you want to mark something that you want to go back to in the future, it is very simple and easy to do, you just circle or underline what stood out to you and mark the page and you are all set.  You will know exactly where you want to go when you re-read the book the next time around or when you want to go and look over the things you found useful in the book before.

Another reason I prefer books is that if the book has an exercise to complete it is much easier.  Lets say the author has an exercise for you to write down a few specific things you learned throughout each chapter.  In an audiobook it would be 100 times harder to go back and listen to the chapter to find the answer.  In a regular book you can flip through and find the exact location the answer would be in.

This even applies to if the book has an exercise about helping you come up with a plan for your life.  In a regular book there is usually already a spot for you to brainstorm and write down your plan.  This will save you time and energy compared to if you are listening to an audiobook.

Why is this?  If you are reading / listening to an audiobook with an exercise in it, you will have to pull out a piece of paper and write down the exercise question and then answer them, which can cause you to be more likely not to do the exercise in the first place since you would have to exert "way" too much energy compared to a regular book.



Audiobooks

With all that being said audiobooks have tremendous benefits as well that regular books don't have!

Audiobooks are actually what I now prefer.  I used to love reading regular books, and yes from regular books it is easier to learn from, since taking down notes is super easy and simple.  However with a regular book I cannot read it while I'm driving, in the shower, cooking, or whatever I'm doing.

With a regular book you literally have to sit down in a quiet environment and read it.  With an audiobook, on the other hand you can listen while you are doing almost anything.

If you have a long daily commute to work audiobooks are even better for your life.  Music is awesome and can be fun to listen to in the car.  But every once and a while (about half the time I drive) I like to listen to an audiobook. The reason being is like I said music can be fun, but why not feed your brain while you are waiting in traffic?

Closing Thoughts 


There is a time and a place for books as well as audiobooks.  To use them both in combination is a great idea.

What I mean here is that both books and audiobooks are great, but if you are driving on a road trip you can't just pull out a book and start reading without putting your life and others in danger. but you can connect your phone to your radio and put on an audiobook.

On the other hand if you are in a quiet or peaceful environment reading an actual book can be very relaxing and feel great to do!

Really audiobooks are great for when you are on the move or super busy.  They are great time savers but if you want to learn better and retain more information I would recommend actually reading books.

Like I said both have their benefits in different situations.  From what you have read above what sounds like a better fit for you, reading books or listening to audiobooks?

If you want to take your life to the next level check out some of my recommended books below and get a copy of your own!

Thank you so much for reading, as always,

Make the best of today,

Brian

5 Things You MUST Stop Doing Right Now To Take Your Life To The Next Level.

In today's blog I want to share with you 5 things you are doing in life that are keeping you from moving forward.  Being able to make a mindset shift and stop doing these 5 nasty habits will help you make the first step in taking your life to the next level!

Eating junk food on a regular basis.

If you are new to the Ganifit blog you may not know about my backround.  Until I was about 15-16 years old I mostly ate junk food every single day. I rarely drank any water (only sugary pop) and usually ate tons of processed foods.

At the time I didn't really notice what these foods were doing to my body, but I saw myself gaining some fat and I was not happy with how I looked.

Although I wasn't severely overweight I still had a little gut and some man boobs.  I was lucky enough to start to become conscious of what I was eating around the age of 16. Although my bad habits didn't change instantly, over time they got better (and still are as I learn more and more about nutrition).

From my personal experience I noticed no benefit from eating these foods except the instant gratification I got from the taste of these foods.  I have multiple cavities from drinking so much pop, eating ice cream, and other sugary foods as a kid.

Now whenever I go and eat some kind of junk food, I notice I feel completely different from when I am eating food that fuels my body.

I feel tired and unmotivated (especially if I eat white bread or processed carbs.  When I was eating processed carbs all the time, I never noticed how it really made me feel.  It took me changing my eating habits to notice how eating a burger or pizza really makes me feel afterwards.

Although there are times I eat junk food, I keep it to a minimum because it dramatically will affect
my health and productivity if I eat junk everyday.

This is also the reason most people will eat lunch and come back to work more tired than before.

So if you want to level up in life, changing your eating habits to healthier eating habits is the first step.  Not only will you be less at risk for major health problems, you will also have more energy to actually focus on improving your life!

Gossiping/judging others.

Judging others is one of the biggest things that holds so many people back in life when they are trying to get ahead.  Most people are stuck in the trap of gossiping or judging others because almost everyone is always doing it, which makes it easy for you to get sucked into.

I am currently working to overcome judging others and I wanted to share a couple ways that can help you stop judging as well.

One of the easiest ways that I have found to instantly change how you view other human beings is to start to realize that they are human just like you.  We all have faults and judging someone on their's doesn't change anything and you will end up feeling bad for it in the end.

When you start to see people as other humans just like you, you will realize that they are just doing the best they know how to in life.  Also realizing that each person has a family can help as well (think of how you would feel if someone judged your parents).  Would you want someone judging your family?  Probably not, so why would you judge someone else when they have a family just like you?

Another great way to stop judging others is to realize that no one else has to be your image of perfect.  I would often find myself judging someone for being overweight and thinking "why can't he or she just get into shape?"

Judging people for this reason made me realize that no one has to live the way I want them to live.  Judging them is not going to change anything either, so start to see where this person is doing good in life, or just simply wish them the best.  But don't go around judging someone just because they aren't how you want them to be.

Realize that you can only control yourself, not strangers, or even friends and family!


Living without any goals.

Without having anything to achieve or stand for in life you will constantly be bored, or even worse try to escape life in any way possible, through TV, video games, and even drugs in extreme cases.  Having a goal or purpose in your life will give you a sense of accomplishment each day that you work toward them.

Maybe you have been in the situation before where you had no goals.  How were your days planned out?  Did you have anything exciting or was it just the same old boring day on repeat?

I remember when I was in school, I would always wait to come home and play video games for hours on end.  Although sometime around the time I turned 16, I started to get more interested in building an online business.  The only problem was that I never wrote down my goals for at least another year.

This resulted in me still playing video games on a regular basis, as well as getting information overload on different types of online businesses but never taking any action.

If I didn't set goals for myself I would still most likely be sitting on the couch playing video games for hours every single day.

By setting big goals, as well as monthly goals, and even daily goals, I give myself a roadmap of where I want to go.  I give my life purpose.

By creating meaningful goals for yourself you will start to live a more worth while life and be on your way to taking your life to the next level!


Staying in a comfortable environment.

So many of us get comfortable where we are in life.  We work 9-5, come home watch TV, eat some junk food and repeat.  This becomes a normal process and what we get used to.  The days start to blur together and you are never challenging yourself.

Chances are you are surrounding yourself with people that make the same amount of money as you (or even less).  You never put yourself in situations where you are uncomfortable and thus never grow.

One of the biggest things in my life is getting to the gym and hitting a hard workout.  I know when I go in there that I am going to be one of the smallest people there.  This is a great challenge, I used to be insecure about having smaller muscles than others, but now I realize that I am being challenged.  I can stay home and cry that I don't have big muscle or I can go to the gym and be around people that have bigger muscles than I do and get motivation from that.  Yes it makes me uncomfortable, but I do it because it will help me grow.

What is it for you?  What areas of life can you start to be the least experienced in the room and challenge yourself?  If you can't get around people that challenge you, go on Youtube and search for people who are where you want to be and learn from them.  Yes it'll be uncomfortable, but it'll be worth it!

Watching TV on a daily basis.

I want to start this section off by saying that watching TV isn't always bad.  There is a time and a place for it and it can be a great way to relax.

Believe me, I used to be there, I would watch TV almost daily.  I love TV but I realized that it won't help me get to where I want to go if I watch it all the time.

Personally I have started to set a goal for myself to only watch TV 2 days per week.  And at the most on those days I will watch about 2 hours of TV.

So how can you start this new habit of watching less TV so you can have more time to upgrade your life?  This goes back to the section where I told you to have some big goals set for your life.  Without big goals you will usually just do whatever is easiest since you have no motivation to accomplish any goals in the first place.

Or maybe you use TV as an escape.  Maybe you are someone who likes to come home after a long day at the office and just watch TV till you go to sleep.  You watch it to numb yourself and forget about your long day.

Although this may feel great in the moment, it will only dig you deeper into the trap.  After a while a habit will be built to not have any ambition or goals.

To start out I would recommend that you keep track of how much you are currently watching TV for one week.  Then replace one hour of TV per day with a goal that you truly want to accomplish.  This way you are starting off slow and building a brand new habit that will help you get to the next level in your life!

Closing thoughts.

I truly hope that reading this gave you a TON of value and insight on how you can start to take your life to the next level.  This is all stuff I had to learn so far along my journey (and even still am in some cases).

I believe that these will really help you start to transform your life if you practice all of these tips on a daily basis.

Thank you so much for reading, as always,
Make the best of today,

Brian

How Can You Deal With Setbacks Outside Of Your Control.

I was inspired to write this post based off of a challenge I am currently going through.  Last week I ended up getting a stomach virus and being completely sick for one day.  Movement of any kind felt like running a marathon and I ended up vomiting like crazy.

That day I forced myself to have a cup of soup to at least eat something.  The next 2 days I was feeling a little better and good enough to live my regular life but eating was still a struggle.  In those 3 days I ate maybe 1500 calories at the most!

This week I started to notice that I lost about 2 pounds of muscle (or at least that what it looks like).

For me this is a huge setback since my goal is to weigh 135 pounds and be lean (8-12% bodyfat).  Gaining muscle and maintaining it is a very important goal for this year and this setback is kind of discouraging me if I am going to be completely honest.

I feel as if the last month of lifting has been a complete waste because of this one situation.  Although, chances are that I will end up gaining that muscle back pretty fast and most likely it wont be a big deal like I am making it out to be.  But either way right now I am discouraged from it.

How can this help you?

Maybe you are currently dealing with a situation outside of your control that is a huge hurdle in your life right now.  Whether its big or small it can have a huge impact on your life and how you move forward from here on.  Every situation can either be dealt with by retreating or by using that challenge as motivation.

As an example, like I stated above, I am discouraged from losing muscle, but what I didn't mention is that it also is giving me motivation to go a little harder on my workouts to not only gain the muscle back that I lost but to put on even more muscle and push myself to the limits more often while working out.

The mindset you must have if you want to get through the setback you are going through, is that you aren't going to fall victim to it.  Believe me I could sit and complain all day that I lost some muscle since last week, plus I am a hard gainer so it will take me even longer to gain back the muscle and weigh 135 by December!

Or I can make that setback my bitch!  I can grab my setback by the balls and use it to my advantage.  I can push through when I want to give up!

And guess what?  You can do the same!  Whatever your setback is right now, how can you take it by the balls?  How can you use your setback as a winning opportunity?

Closing thoughts

What are you going through right now that is a huge hurdle for you?  Instead of using it as an excuse to give up, how can you use it as motivation to not only keep going, but bygoing even harder than before?

Take 5 minutes to write down 5 ways that you can use this challenge to fuel your fire and do even better in life than your were before!

Thank you so much for reading, as always,
Make the best of today,

Brian