Fun Fact: One American president read an entire book before breakfast. Every. Single. Day.

While in the White House, Teddy Roosevelt always read at least one book before eating breakfast. When the chief executive didn’t have official business in the evening, he’d read another two or three books before bed.

Teddy’s biographer, Edmund Morris, said Roosevelt could read anywhere: “On the heaving deck of the presidential yacht in the middle of a cyclone, between whistle-stops on a campaign trip, even while waiting for his carriage.”

I mention this voracious reader because friends and associates frequently commend me on being “well read.” While there is some truth in that — especially in the area of business books — the breadth of my reading doesn’t come close to some of the thought leaders I admire and follow.

So, I pose this question: Are you too busy to read? Too much going on? Think back to Roosevelt and then ask yourself “why?” Now, let’s talk about ways to change that.

Allow me to offer two ways that I found helped open up reading time for me. First, I often drive up to 1,000 miles a week, visiting clients across the state and going to our family cottage for relaxation. When I find myself in the car for several hours, my preferred activity is listening to a book, which really helps the time fly by. Second, I’ve made it a habit to read each morning for 30 minutes. I established this pattern decades ago, and over time, I’ve absorbed hundreds of publications.

Time has accomplished the rest and, with discipline, the books have added up.

This healthy habit of reading has given me the insight to be conscious of outdated thinking and to question my beliefs. Like all humans, “who I am” is based on a combination of my distant past and my more recent experiences. By consuming a steady diet of books and seminars (I attend at least two annually), my near past is continually being reshaped by new knowledge and new beliefs. 

If it weren’t for this intake of new knowledge, my beliefs regarding the world would be shaped primarily by old knowledge — my childhood upbringing, my education, and my peer groups. Based on those three factors, my beliefs would be outdated! That’s because we’re all students of the Industrial Age, and our education system was specifically designed to prepare us to serve that master. 

As a result, outmoded concepts like ownership, obsolescence, scarcity, finite supply, and command-and-control management are ingrained in our beliefs. Our collective upbringing and schooling were developed for a world we are rapidly moving away from — and is disconnected from a present and future that increasingly values information creation and exchange.

Fundamentally, the Industrial Age and the corresponding education we received is based on a scarcity of resources. In that model, when I exchange physical items (equipment, products, money, etc.), I no longer have them. On the contrary, when I exchange information or knowledge, I retain them. Unlike tangible items, I can share information without losing it.

Abundance thinking maps better to the Information Age, or as I like to call it, the Exponential Age. But because I grew up listening to my parents and peers, it’s still natural and automatic for me to think from a scarcity bias. 

I’m not the first to note this tendency. But it’s a relatively new subject, and my behavioral reaction is often to cling to past beliefs about the world. 

Ray Kurzweil jokingly says the human brain hasn’t had a software upgrade in 2,000 years. He explains that because we receive all incoming information through the most primitive part of our brain (the amygdala), we are hardwired to look at the world through a lens of fear and scarcity. Because our brain is designed to sense danger first, we are predisposed to look at reasons why things won’t work instead of enthusiastically pursuing a ‘can do” solution and path to succeed. 

We are programmed to argue for negative possibility; programmed to cling to the past, the familiar, the culturally acceptable route, even if it’s not the best way.

My personal mission to Replace Retirement with Intentional Living is a lifestyle grounded in the Exponential Age. This radical approach of rejecting retirement can be frightening and frustrating to some. They are hanging onto a belief system that may not serve them well in an exponentially changing world. 

When Teddy Roosevelt — a pretty busy guy — visited Africa, he packed 59 books in his luggage. This leader constantly challenged himself to learn and grow and gain new knowledge. Let’s do the same! I invite you to read more books, reject retirement, and resist the urge to cling to the past.

Let’s shift the paradigm of what aging and retirement is all about.