A long time ago, I bought the book "Ask" by Ryan Levesque. I bought it on a whim because Amazon had recommended it to me. It came to my door, I opened the package, I read the table of content... and... I immediately squeezed it into my bookshelf. It just didn't interest me. I had better things to do at that moment. I kept the book though. I kept it as I moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn. I kept it as I moved from Brooklyn to Berlin. ... And then one day, years after it had arrived in its brown Amazon packaging, I picked it up again. And in that moment it was the most important and fitting book. It helped me figure out an important question I had. Reading books, learning new skills, acquiring a healthy new habit have one thing in common: They all start as small seeds. Unfortunately we want the seed to sprout right then and there, but sometimes the seed isn't ready yet to sprout into our life. Instead of blaming ourselves for not performing the thing we want it to do for us... ...allow the seed to sleep as long as it needs. ## You have to do one thing though... Before you put the seed away though, you HAVE TO DO ONE THING. You have to PLANT the seed. You have to practice ONCE. Remember, when I got the book, I opened it and read the table of contents. How long did that take? Maybe a minute. But in that minute, I planted the seed of that book in myself. That's where it grew, ever so slowly, over the course of YEARS. But at some point, it sprouted. At the exact right time and place. So. Plant the seed by practicing it ONCE. If you want to learn to meditate, do a 1-minute meditation. If you want to learn the guitar, pick it up once and try to make one cool sound. If you want to learn finance, pick up that book and read through the table of contents. Then, if it's not "sprouting" right then and there, don't judge yourself. The seed just isn't ready yet. Keep the planted seed with you, keep it close. Let it sleep as long as you and it needs time. I promise you, one day, it will come back to you. At the right time and right place. ## Exercises Here are three exercises that will help you plant as many seeds as possible today. That's all you need to do. Plant the seeds by practicing ONCE. ### Plant Book Seeds - Go to your bookshelf and find three books you've bought but never read - Take each book and read its table of contents (if it's a non-fiction book) - Put the books back on your shelf - Celebrate your planting those seeds ### Plant Skill Seeds - Go to Udemy (or any other learning platform you use) and go through the list of courses you've subscribed to but never started - Go to each course and read the syllabus - When you've read the syllabus/table of content of all of those, close the website - Celebrate your planting those seeds ### Plant Life Seeds - Download the Headspace app and open it - Go to their "Basics" course and follow along the first 3-minute excercise - Close the app - Celebrate your planting this seed