It’s not an old wives’ tale that reading is responsible for expanding your mind. Recent studies have proven that there are notable differences in the brains of people who do read, people who can’t read and people who read infrequently.

The first notable difference in the brains of people who do read is that they have a larger occipital lobe (which is the visual processing centre of the brain) than those people who don’t. What this means is that these people will process visual information in a much quicker manner and the fact that they enjoy:

• An enhanced imagination
• Improved creativity skills
• The ability to visualise the future better in terms of decision-making and planning.

The second noteworthy feature that readers display in their brain is that they have a more prominent parietal lobe than their counterparts. This lobe of the brain is responsible for, among others, the processing of language.

So whether you read fiction, non-fiction or just articles on the Internet, this will enhance the processing power of your brain.

So, how does this tie into thought-leadership?

What is a thought-leader?

A thought-leader is an informed leader in a particular field. In other words, they are the go-to expert who is at the top of people’s minds when they need to consult someone in the area. This is because people trust thought-leaders as being reliable sources of information. Thought-leaders move and inspire others with innovative ideas.

One of the main things that thought-leaders do is to disseminate their knowledge – via PR articles, books, blogs (or all of the above) – so that other people who are facing issues in their lives which are similar to what they’ve experienced will be able to learn from their experiences and implement their learnings.

What are the benefits of being a thought-leader?

There are a lot of benefits that accrue to people from being a thought-leader. Here are just a couple of them:

• People are naturally drawn to thought leaders. They want to learn from what they have to say and sometimes will travel across continents to listen to what they have to say.
• People reference the work of thought-leaders in the work that they produce. In this way, the thought-leader’s message gets shared among many people. In this way, they get known.
• Related to the first point, people trust thought-leaders because they know what they are talking about. They are drawn to them when they speak and gravitate towards what they have to say.

The benefits of reading thought-leadership books 

So, as you can see from the above article, it’s been scientifically proven that reading is responsible for strengthening your mind and making you better able to respond to the demands of the world as we know it today. The learnings imparted by thought leaders in the pages of their books have been designed based on what these people have implemented in their lives because they have benefitted from it themselves. It’s a compelling message that they have to share. Thus, the benefits gained from reading, coupled with the advantages that thought leaders bring provide a compelling way for you to gain powerful insights to help you in your daily life.

Learn from the Thought Leaders at Future Self Academy

At Future Self Academy, we have developed a unique concept called ‘author-led courses’. What this means is that we’ve taken various thought-leadership books which have been written by authors across multiple genres and, with their help and our team of expert course creators, we’ve developed courses based on their books.

These courses contain videos from the author, highlighting the critical take-homes that they want people to get from each section, the course itself as well as assessments that people can do to test their knowledge of the content. In this way, retention is increased so you’ll better be able to implement what you’ve learned in your life.

Keen to learn more? If so, please visit our course catalogue page to browse our titles.