Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 3/9/12

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I’m back baby! We flew back into Boston last night, and while vacation seemingly breezed by in the blink of an eye (don’t they all!), I can honestly say that I feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to tackle the day.

Coincidentally, I’m going to be tackling an inbox full of emails, not to mention will be spending the majority of my day writing programs, and catching up on life – laundry, grocery shopping, you know the drill.

On that note, since a huge part of vacation for me is having the opportunity to do nothing but eat M&Ms lie horizontal and catch up on a lot of reading, here are some highlights from this past week:

The Education of Millionaires: It’s Not What You Think and It’s Not Too Late – Michael Ellsberg

Knowing I was going to be spending a significant amount of time at the beach/poolside, I grabbed a few books from my “Tony, quit being a jackass and read this” pile off of my bookshelf and threw them into my backpack. This one was at the top.

Recommended by my buddy Nate Green, this book discusses the notion that there’s a huge divide between an education and academic excellence and how each correlates to financial success.

Unfortunately our society has placed a premium on the latter under the assumption that, by spending the better part of 16 of the most productive years of our lives focusing solely on achieving high grades – which is commendable and certainly not without merit – and often going into insurmountable debt to do so, we’re somehow guaranteed a career afterwards that will set us up for life.

Not necessarily the case (as the Occupy Wall Street movement clearly demonstrates).

Granted I’m only about a quarter of the way through the book as I type this, but it’s been eye opening to say the least.

More than anything, this book shows that success is not necessarily about studying hard and attaining excellent grades so that you can place letters next to your name.  Rather, it’s about what you won’t learn in college that will dictate how successful you are professionally.

Now, I’d never poo-poo on my higher education experience as I feel that those years served a vital role in helping me develop into the person I am today.  But I’d be lying if I said much of what’s helped me succeed in the fitness industry are things that I have learned INSIDE of academia.  On the contrary, it’s been things on the outside that have been of most benefit. Things like developing networks, learning how to market your services, investing in yourself, and building a brand, to name a few.

Anatomy Without a Scalpel – Lon Kilgore

If you’re like me, and have the tendency to lie down in the fetal position whenever you attempt to read a chapter in “heavier” books like Anatomy Trains or Movement Impairment Syndromes, than this book is right up your alley.

The section on shoes and whether or not there’s any efficacy for their use – and how they affect performance – is worth the price of admission alone.

I read that section on the flight back home yesterday and couldn’t help but wonder whether it was the 40 MPH wind gusts or my nodding my head in agreement so much that was causing all the turbulence.

The bigger picture, though, is that it’s an easily digested read (coming in at just a shade over 300 pages) that provides solid information which won’t cause a headache from beating you down with a barrage of big words.

The Scientific Look at the Dangers of High Heels – Gretchen Reynolds

Sure they look good.  Real good. What guy doesn’t love watching an attractive female walk down the street in a pair of sexy high heels?

But I’ve been riding this train for years, and have been an ardent advocate on exposing the numerous “pitfalls” that high heels can have on the body.

Tellingly, it comes down to a simple question:  would you rather look good, or live the rest of your life with chronic hip, knee, and back pain?

Of course, there’s a middle ground.  Women aren’t going to give up their Christian Louboutin’s anytime soon.  That’s like asking dudes to give up meat, or worse, football.  Instead of taking a black or white approach (either wear them or don’t wear them), it could be as simple as maybe wearing heels once or twice a week, rather than everyday.

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