Hello everyone!

Just wanted to drop a quick post on my progress through my personal development program, The Xavier Project.

I recently talked about how I put some structure to my reading, and now cycle through a set of 12 books in varying topics to make my learning more intentional. I drafted the first version on June 25th, and yesterday I finished the 12th and final book in that system! First off, I haven’t realized that my reading as been this intense that I’ve been finishing a book on average every 3.6 days! Some books have been short 100 page reads, but I also crunched through a 36 hour biography of John D. Rockefeller (800+ page book if I didn’t have it on audio).

So here’s the list of all the books completed during my first time through my structured reading:
1. What makes your brain happy, and why you should do the opposite -David DiSalvo
2. The Thank You Economy -Gary Vaynerchuk
3. Martin Van Buren – Ted Widmer
4. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin – Benjamin Franklin
5. All In: You Are One Decision Away from a Totally Different Life – Mark Batterson
6. Better Than Before: Masterin the Habits of Our Everyday Lives – Gretchen Rubin
7. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It – Kelly McGonigal
9. To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others – Daniel Pink
10. William Henry Harrison – Gail Collins
11. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. – Ron Chernow
12. Sun Stand Still – Steven Fertick

I realized something a couple of days ago as I was reflecting on this list, I basically created my own DIY school curriculum. I’ve repeatedly expressed that I don’t particularly enjoy the educational system and I feel like it limits my learning potential. I always look forward to summer so I can focus on learning what I want to learn and not only have I done that, but I have a class structure now to guide my learning.

Overall, I’m very pleased with this format. I think I’ll make some changes in the future on adding or removing some genres, but the concept itself is working like a charm. The next change is that I think I should make it be part of the routine that I go back and reread an older book that I’ve already read. Even though I take notes, I think it is valuable to go over material again after I have had time to grow and read the same material from a different mindset.

That’s all for today! Just wanted to keep you all in the loop on my progress and hope it inspires you to step out and strive to maximize your potential!

Follow my progress live by going to TheXavierProject.com