There are a lot of people who laugh at the idea of self-help books. Most people experience the urge to make a change while they’re reading them but can’t seem to find it once the book is over which can result in half finished projects and drawn out denial about what’s actually happening.

When it comes to self help books though, inspiration was never supposed to be experienced singularly. No one drinks a glass a water once in their life and then never suffers from dehydration again. The amazing effects of an apple or spinach don’t last forever. Exercising once in your lifetime does not maintain a physique. Even religious people don’t survive on just faith alone, they are inspired by the words of their texts and their religious leaders, friends and family. Anything that adds to our life in a good way has to be kept up.

The Ted Talk below by Tai Lopez talks about mentorship and one of the best take aways from this video is that we should be reading a book a day. While I don’t know if I believe in reading a book a day, it definitely motivated me to read as much as possible.

As Lopez pointed out, people undeniably benefit from mentors. Our whole genetic makeup as mammals is based on learning from one another. In a world as technologically advanced as we are, you can find mentors anywhere but mentors were around way before the internet in many forms, including books. In that sense, books were never meant to be used sparingly.

Don’t just read one inspirational biography and expect that excitement to carry you throughout the months and years it will take you to build your own inspirational story. You’re expending energy, which means you need to be taking it in from somewhere else in order to sustain it. So be inspired as much as possible. Read or watch something new whenever you can, experience something that motivates you, even go back and look at some of the amazing stuff you yourself have conquered.

The problem is not that the book didn’t work, it’s just that you needed more of it than you knew you did.