Your Fountain of YouthReading is more than that. It can be your fountain of youth. Virginia Woolf said, “The true reader is essentially young.” One of your major problems is how to stay alive as long as you live. Some die at 30 but are not buried until theyre 70. With some, youth slips away before being properly savored. Reading provides a spring of living water, refreshing and lifegiving. Stay young for life with reading.
Your Dreamfulfillment AidPart of youth lies in dreaming—dreaming impossible dreams that you can sometimes make possible. Robert F. Kennedy said this,“Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why？ I dream things that never were and say ‘Why not？’” Certain books push the boundaries of the human mind out beyond belief. After all, a little bit of greatness hides in everyone. Let books bring it into full bloom.
Your Knowthyself AidWhats your most important quest？ Finding yourself. Finding your own identity. The Greeks epitomized that problem in two words: Know thyself. Well, articles and books help in that allimportant search. They supply assurance of the power and worth of your own life, a measure of your possibilities.To see yourself in proper perspective, you need detailed picture of real people in real situations. We need to see threedimensional characters, with all the typical human fears and limitations. Then, and only then, can you begin to see and know yourself as you should.
Your Vocational Counselor and ConsultantWhat about practical questions, such as those about your vocation？ Will reading help you decide more intelligently what to do, how to prepare yourself and how to succeed on the job？To answer the first question, you have to know your own talents, abilities, and interests well. You must also, however, know the opportunities in the world around you. Some Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example, predicted a surplus of approximately two million school teachers. Still another source indicated that right now “the health fields are the only fields in which we have shortages.” Balance such information with selfknowledge and you have some of the ingredients needed to make intelligent, perceptive choices.Second, youve decided on a career. How and where do you get the required preparation？ Again, turn to reading. Youll probably find a listing of school programs to choose from. You may even find them rated. If so, youll know exactly where to go for the best possible preparation.Third, dont stop yet. Youve selected a career and trained yourself. Learn on reading now to help you succeed on the job. A variety of magazines and books will provide guidance and help.But thats not all. The day of only one lifetime career may be almost over. All too often, change throws hundreds out of work. Change hits the aircraft industry, for example. Result？ Hundreds of wellqualified engineers suddenly out on the street.If you manage things well, keeping a close eye on changing conditions. You can avoid the pain of waking up to find yourself out of a job. Through reading develop some new skills and interests. Then if conditions change, you can slip with comparative ease from one field into another, hardly breaking stride.Most of the things taught in school — typing, shorthand, key punching, language, farming, business management — are readily available in interesting selfhelp articles and books. Let them smooth your path in any new direction you decide to take.
Your Experience ExtenderWhats the best teacher？ Experience, of course! Its priceless. It comes from what you yourself have seen, heard, tasted, smelled, and felt — what you yourself have lived through.Take a closer look. Look at our limitations. No wonder experience is so precious. We cant begin to get enough of it. We cant even experience again what we just lived through. Were not born with instant replay. We cant actually relive any moment. And, obviously, were limited to one lifetime.Space and time! How they limit us. Who has a time machine to carry him back into history？ No one. Its the same with space. We cant literally be in two places at the same time. Right now you cant be sitting where you are and at the same time be strolling down the famed Champs Elysees in Paris.Heres where reading fits. It can bring us almost unlimited additional experience. To be sure, its secondhand experience. But its often so vivid that it seems firsthand, just as if were living through it ourselves, being moved to tears, laughter, or suspense. That rich range of experience provides the ideal supplement to our own limited experience. In this way, reading becomes one of our most profound mindshaping activities.Furthermore, all this experience is available when we want it. Books never impose on us. When we want them, we reach out and pull them off the shelf or table. At our convenience we invite them to share their unbelievable wealth with us.Carlyle sums this all up nicely, “All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been; it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.” Help yourself! Make reading your experienceextender for the rest of your life.
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