Hi, my name is Adam Cornick, and I am the creator of The 52 Book Challenge. With The 52 Book Challenge my goal is to inspire people to pursue self educate and become lifelong learners. The 52 Book Challenge promotes ideas of reading and meditating to increase your “brainpower.”
Now for a little bit of my story, as a kid, you would not call me the smartest person in the class. I wasn’t the worst but I hovered around the middle. I was a diligent student and I was able to achieve average marks because I put in the work.
Let us rewind to my elementary school days, here I found out I had a Learning Disability (LD). Spelling was a huge challenge for me and learning things took extra effort to learn things “my way.” I put in the work, mainly because my parents forced me and I managed to get okay marks.
Lets fast forward to middle/high school, this is where I discovered my brain was not going pick up new things as fast as the other kids. I would have to give my mind time to work around my LD. Middle/High School was a challenge and many of the topics that were being taught were going over my head. I became an introverted person and hoped every class that the teacher would not call on me. With this newly developed defense mechanism, I was able to learn the topics on my own before the test. Which allowed me to achieve good marks. But most of the time I had no idea why I was learning certain things.
From high school, I graduated with decent marks and headed off to University. This presented another challenge and I only lasted here a year. There was a hung learning curve, and I felt college would be a better fit for me. College was another struggle, mainly because I chose to specialize in Engineering Technology. I was never a strong science student, so this was not been the best choice for my talents. Since the curriculum was math-based, I figured I could handle it.
I struggled through the first few years and I managed to get through my program. Again I developed the defense mechanism of staying quiet in the classroom. With the hope the instructor didn’t call on me and it typically worked. I graduated from the program, no doubt a year later than I was supposed to but I graduated.
Then I started my career in surveying. I have a good capacity for math and technology, so I never suffered any difficulties getting my career established. Once more, I stayed quiet for the first couple of years learning how the senior employees did their job. When I learned their techniques, I was able to become pretty good at my chosen field. Thankfully the techniques were easy to grasp once you figure out the basics. Since I was quiet, easy-going, and respectful most of the senior employees had no trouble advising me. I again developed the defense of staying silent which as you can tell worked for me pretty well.
I always wanted a university degree and had the option of completing some online courses to achieve a Bachelor of Technology. I started this several years ago and recently completed it. From everything that I developed from my first 25 years of school, I was able to process the information for the courses and never encountered any major difficulties.
Let us bring my story to the present day. I wanted to continue with my education, but I wasn’t sure how to approach it. I considered completing a master’s degree but there was no guarantee in it advancing my career. Plus, I might have been completing it to please my ego, so I decided against it.
Enter The 52 Book Challenge, I decided to go down the route of self-education and read 52 books this year. Through the pursuit of knowledge and meditation practices, I have been able to focus my mind in a greater capacity than before. I’ve also developed a book culture around my life, books don’t control my life, but they have become a significant part of it.
If you would like to learn the knowledge I have gained from the great performers I have read about, sign up for my e-mail list. Also, look me up on Instagram @the_52_book_challenge!
The 52 Book Challenge 