A few years ago I was thinking about starting writing online and had some apprehension, as all beginners usually do.

I emailed one of my favorite writers asking for advice, not knowing whether he'd reply. Not long afterward, I saw a message from him in my inbox. His advice was only two words:

"Just begin."

Eight months later I'd published about 100 articles on Medium and was earning a few hundred a month from my writing. I was learning and growing and connecting with others and loving every minute of it.

What happened next blew my mind.

That same writer emailed me asking if I wanted to write for him. I excitedly accepted and began writing non-fiction book summaries on fourminutebooks.com.

Nearly two years after that I'd published over 400 summaries on the site and learned thousands of lessons from it all. Here are just 3 of the most impactful ones to me.

1. Most books only have one big takeaway, the majority of it is stories to help you understand how to do it and why you should

This is a lesson for when you're reading non-fiction books. Most of them aren't worth your time because you can get the main points in just four minutes rather than spending hours reading.

What that means though is that you can use book summaries to get those main points to see if a book is worth reading or not.

I'll also recommend book lists all day. Find your favorite writers "best books" articles and see what books are showing up on all of them. Some of my favorites that are actually worth your time:

• Atomic Habits by James Clear

• The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday

• Soundtracks by Jon Acuff

Another key point here is that there are no "hacks" in life. You likely already known what you need to do to grow and improve, you just need help implementing those actions. And most importantly, how to be consistent.

2. Consistency is how you get good at anything and those who prepare for difficulty are the only ones who figure out how to be consistent

I learned the consistency part from books like Grit and Peak and so many more. This lesson was in dozens of the books I summarized. To sum it up:

Repetition is greater than intensity. Slow and steady wins the race isn't just some platitude, it works.

The trick is to figure out 1) how to practice little enough at first that you can stick to it for a long time and 2) how to get through the tough part after the initial enjoyment wears off.

Grit also teaches about getting through the most challenging stages, but this is especially well taught in The Messy Middle and Seth Godin's The Dip. Read those books to find ways to prepare for difficulty so it doesn't make you quit.

3. The greatest indicator of happiness and success is social connection

This one is simple. Of all the statistical figures and studies that I learned about, one stands out above all the rest.

In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor explains that happiness leads to success, then he gives seven principles to improve your happiness.

The last one is the most impactful because it's given with the statement that of all the research he'd done, the result that social connection leads to happiness was the most statistically significant of all of it.

In other words, the relationship between connection with others and happiness was stronger than any other he'd researched.

In simple terms, if you work with people, you will be happy and you will succeed. If you don't, you're almost certainly going to fail.

Wrapping Up

It may seem overwhelming for you, like it did for me, thinking about all the great books that you want to read. I can say from experience though that it's not so bad, there are only a few really worth your time, and most of the lessons you already know anyway. You just need to work on applying yourself, remaining consistent through hard times, and connecting with others.