Why Reading Is the Highest-Leverage Habit You're Not Taking Seriously

I spent a summer repairing windshields in a parking lot. No plan. No vision. Just heat, slow days, and eventually, books. That summer didn't look like much. Looking back, it was the beginning of everything.

Reading doesn't just give you information. It changes how you think. And that's a completely different thing.

In this episode, Andrew Rocha makes the case that consistent reading is one of the highest-leverage things you can do with your time, and unpacks why knowing that hasn't been enough to make most people actually do it. You'll hear the story behind Uprooting Anger, a book recommended during a hard season, and the simple framework it gave Andrew that has compounded into years of a better marriage and a calmer household. Plus, the practical system he uses to read consistently across a full life: three kids under six, a career, a real estate portfolio, and this podcast.

If you've ever started a book, put it down, and felt guilty about it, this one's for you.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

It's a Tuesday morning and I'm sitting under a neon orange tent in a parking lot. Not glamorous or inspiring, just me or a parakeet and a windshield with a crack running across the lower left corner. The car belongs to someone who dropped it off while we went grocery shopping. They'll be back in an hour or so. This was my summer job: windshield repair in a blazing hot, half-empty parking lot earning commission. Some days it was exciting until you realize that other days you're just sitting there under the tent watching the parking lot, watching people come and go, watching time move slower than it has any right to. I don't remember exactly which day it happened, but at some point that summer, I started bringing books. Not because I was trying to become a better person, not because I had some vision for self-improvement. Honestly, I just need something to do. The first few were audio books I threw on while I was doing repairs. Then physical books for the slow days when I had nothing but time and heat and the occasional car pulling in. And something happened that I didn't expect. The books started working on me. Not in a dramatic, life-changing moment kind of way, more like the way you your eyes adjust when you walk into a dark room slowly and gradually. And then one day you realize you can see things you couldn't see before. I was reading sale books because my income depended on it. The books on communication because I had kept noticing that there were gaps in how I talked to people. Then books on thinking and entrepreneurship because something had been stirred up in me in that season that I was standing in the parking lot that I just couldn't put back down. That summer didn't feel like much at that time. It felt like a guy killing time under an orange tent. But looking back, it was the beginning of everything. And I want to make a case today that reading is one of the highest leverage things you can do with your time. And I want to make it in a way that actually lands. Because I think most people already know that they should be reading more, but it hasn't made them want to read more. See, knowing isn't the problem. Here's how I think about it: every book that you read is a conversation with someone who has spent years thinking deeply, thinking about one thing, years of research, experience, failure, and refinement condensed into something you can get through in a few hours. You are borrowing the best thinking of the best minds for the price of a paperback. That's an absurd deal. Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's business partner, used to say that he never met a truly wise person who didn't read constantly. Not sometimes, constantly. And when people ask Buffett, how did he get smarter? Now, most of us are not running Berkshire Halfway, but the principle holds regardless of what you're building. Reading doesn't give you information, it changes how you think. And that's a different thing entirely. I look back when I was reading a book called Uprooting Anger, and we'll dive into that book a little bit more later because I think that really matters to this story. See, I wasn't just learning facts about anger. Something in me, something in my thinking actually shifted. I came out of that book with a framework I still use today. If God wouldn't be angered by something, I have no right to be angered by it either. That's not information, that's a lens. And a lens changes what you see in every situation from that point forward. That's what great books do. They don't just fill a space in your head, they start to re-rewire how you process the world. See, most people are walking around with the same mental software they had at 22. Same assumptions, same frameworks, same blind spots, just applied to a bigger life with bigger stakes. Reading is how you update that software. Now, before I tell you how I read, I want to address the real reasons people don't. Because I've heard all of them. The most common one is time. And I want to push back on that a bit. See, I have three kids under six with a fourth one on the way. I work full time, I'm managing a real estate portfolio, running this podcast, doing ministry, have friends, and trying to be a present husband and father. So I'm not telling you that to impress you. I'm telling you so you understand that when I say I always have a book with me, it's not because I have a lot of free time. It's because I've chosen to design my life to free up those small moments. Whether I have a book in my car, or there's a book sitting on my nightstand table, or there's at least one audio book queued up at all times on my phone. It could be the commute to work, the 10 minutes I'm sitting alone in a parking lot waiting for an appointment to begin, the quiet stretch before I fall asleep. Those moments exist in your day too. But most people are filling them with scrolling. And I'm not judging that. I do it too. But the scroll rarely gives anything to give back. The second reason people don't read consistently is they feel ashamed about not being able to finish a book. Someone recommends something and you start it, but you just really can't get through it. Maybe life's too busy. So you put it down and then you start to feel guilty that that book is sitting there every time you walk past the shelf. I honestly have a long list of books I've started and not finished. A long list. And I made peace with the fact a while ago. You don't owe a book your time. If it's not landing, put it down and find something that does. You might come back to it, you might not, but guilt is a terrible reason to keep reading something that isn't working for you. The goal isn't completion, the goal is growth. The third reason is that people don't know where to start. And that one I have an actual answer for, and we'll get there. A few years ago, someone in counseling recommended a book to me called Uprooting Anger. And I want to be honest why I was in counseling, because this episode isn't about reading habits. It's about what reading can do when you're actually in a season where you actually need it. I had a control problem. And control when it doesn't get what it wants becomes anger. I didn't always recognize it as anger in that moment. I'd call it frustration. I called it high standards. I call it caring deeply about outcomes. But Emily knew, and she was patient in a way that I didn't deserve. The counselor recommended the book. I bought it and I read it in under a week, which for someone who was not in a great headspace at that time is saying something. It held my attention because it was speaking directly into something I was living. The core idea that I couldn't shake was this. There are two kinds of anger. There's a kind that's rooted in self. I didn't get my way, things didn't go as I planned, I was inconvenienced or embarrassed or disappointed. And then there's the kind of anger that's rooted in justice. Someone is being mistreated. Something genuinely wrong is happening. The book made the case that most of what we call anger is the first kind, dressed up as the second. We convince ourselves we're angry about something that matters when we're really angry because we lost control of the situation. The test I took from it was simple. Would God be angered by this? Not as some sort of theological exercise, but more so as a daily gut check. The coffee spilled, the meeting ran too long, the deal fell through, the kids are loud at bedtime when I'm exhausted. Would God be angered by this? No. So I can let it go. And when something is genuinely unjust, when it's about how someone is being treated, when it actually matters, then the anger has permission. That's different. That's righteous. The framework has probably saved my marriage more than once. Not because I've mastered it, I truly haven't, but because now when I feel it rising, when I have a place to put it, that's what a book did. One book at the right moment, with the right idea, has compounded into years of a better marriage and a calmer household. That's not a small thing. So here's what actually works based on what I do, not what sounds good. Keep books everywhere. Keep them in your car, the nightstand, your phone, your backpack. The friction of going to find a book is enough to stop most people. Remove that friction point. If a book is already there, you'll read it. Use the small moments. I'm not talking about carving out multiple hours every morning before the sun comes up. I'm asking you to notice the gaps that already exist in your day. Maybe it's your commute, the waiting room, the 10 minutes before you fall asleep, whatever it is, string those together and you'll get through more than you think. And mix the formats, whether it's physical books or audiobooks, they're not competing for different tools for different situations. I often do audiobooks in the car or moments where my hands are busy. And I do physical books when I want to think slowly and write in the margins. Both count, and that is okay. Also, write in your books. That one was extremely hard for me at first. There's something that feels almost wrong, dirty about marking up a book, but I got over it and my reading completely changed. I now have books where I've written it so much in the margins that I probably could take all of that writing and write a brand new book based off that. When you write in a book, you start having a conversation with it. You're just not receiving, you're responding. That's where retention actually lives. And for audiobooks, screenshot the timestamp. When something hits, I pause it and screenshot the time so I can come back to it later. Then I'll write it down when I can. It takes about five seconds to make a screenshot, but I don't lose those moments that matter. I also love talking about what you're reading. My love language is teaching. When I talk through an idea that I've just read, I remember it. I understand it at a deeper level. And you don't have to have a podcast to do this. Tell your spouse, tell a friend, tell your kids if they're old enough. Teaching is one of the best retention tools out there because you continue to develop the dialogue. Also, stop finishing bad books. Give yourself permission to put it down, whether it's 50 pages, 100 pages, whatever your threshold is. If it's not working, move on. Life is too short and your reading list is too long. There are far too many books out there for you to read them all. So feel confident putting those down. And on that note, where do you start? Well, you can ask the people around you. Ask them their recommendations, what they're reading, asking them what changed their thinking. The books that shape the people you admire will tell you more about how they think than almost anything else. I think about that parking lot sometimes. The neon orange tent, the slow days, the guy there just trying to get through the afternoon. He didn't know he was building something. He just thought he was passing some time, but those books were doing something to him that didn't show up for years. The sales thinking that shaped how I approach relationships at work, the communication frameworks that change how I talk to people, the entrepreneurial mindset that eventually led to 10 rental doors and a real estate portfolio, and now even this podcast. None of that showed up directly in the parking lot, but the parking lot is where it all started. See, Charlie Munger said the best thing a human being can do is get very good at something that is very hard. Reading consistently over years is one of those things, not because it's physically hard, but because it requires a kind of patience and attention that most people never develop. The compounding doesn't happen in a week or a month. It happens across a lifetime. And the beautiful thing is that it doesn't require talent. It doesn't require a lot of money, it doesn't require perfect circumstances. It just requires a decision to show up and actually grab a book. You already have a time, you just have to decide what to do with it. So here's the question I want to leave you with. What would change in your life over the next five years if you committed to reading consistently? And if you're looking for recommendations, I brought a few with me. Now, the first book recommendation I have, some people would call it controversial. I think it's one of the ones that have changed my life the most How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Now it's controversial controversial because most people don't like the idea of influence. But truly, I think this has helped me more with creating new friendships, being able to walk into a room confidently and connect with individuals. And so if that's something that you're aspiring to in your life, I'd highly recommend How to Win Friends and Influence People. The next one is called Ego as an enemy. It's a nice, easy read by a guy named Ryan Holliday who really focuses on this idea of stoicism. What can we do and how can we improve ourselves on a day-to-day level? If you love the Roman Empire, you will probably love ego as an enemy because it's going to challenge your ego. Now, if you're a dad that wants to level up, I would highly recommend the intentional father. It's really designed for dads that have teenage kids, but my kids aren't teenagers, and it's already starting to put me into a different mindset of what I can do to become an intentional father each and every day. Now, a book that I didn't bring is called Red Rising. It is a science fiction book. You might be wondering why on earth would I be recommending a science fiction book? I think science fiction actually does the job of teaching us how to be creative individuals. And so if you're someone that's wanting to spark creativity, I'd read more science fiction. Start with Red Rising because it's a fun read. You're going to read lots of war scenes and it's pretty cool. The next one is The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housell. If you're wondering about money, what should I do with my money? Even just how I should think about money, this is going to rewire your mind to know how you should actually be thinking about money. Next is Love Does by Bob Goff. If you want more joy in your life, if you want to figure out how to become more whimsical and just spread that happiness throughout, this is a great read for you. And then lastly, if you want to develop more of an entrepreneurial mind, sharpen some business skills, the compound effect. It's teaching you how to take one thing and compound that daily. So that way it creates a habit over a lifetime, which ties in perfectly with what we're talking about reading, of that compound effect of what reading does to you over time. So these are just a few of my recommendations for books. But eventually one day, I want to write a book. And so I would love your help with that. If you can share this podcast episode with someone who wants to be able to read more, someone that just might need this hear this message, maybe someone that just needs some good book recommendations. The more people that hear this podcast, it allows me to grow that audience to know what is important, what people are interested in, and help me to write that book. So please share this with a friend. Thank you so much for doing so.