After realizing that life satisfaction comes from maintaining balance, I knew what I had to do to finally become happy – I needed to even out all my life spheres. As I set out on my self-growth journey, I discovered that there’s a tool for it! And that’s how my story with Headway had started.
To clear things up, Headway is a book summary app that goes way beyond classical reading. One example of their format diversity is the challenges you can pass there. And the Success challenge, in particular, was the one to change my life.
How did the Success challenge help me with achieving life balance?
The Success challenge was frankly the best way to start my self-growth journey. After reading all success-oriented 28 summaries, I have boosted leadership, goal-setting, ownership, result focusing, and confidence. Not too bad for just four weeks, huh?
The key here is that having enhanced those skills influenced all my life spheres — money, relationships, career, spiritual, etc. The challenge helps you accomplish the groundwork in short term to gradually balance out all your priorities and life domains.
So, how does the Headway challenge work?
First, in the app, you pick a challenge that targets your goals. There were many appealing options, like Wellness, Self-Confidence, or Emotional Intelligence, but I decided to stick with Success for starters. And later on, it turned out to be the best choice.
After choosing the challenge, you get a custom reading plan that assigns one book summary for each day to boost that life domain — as simple as that!
A summary is an original piece of content written based on a book that takes around 15 minutes to read. The writers give you only important information and valuable thoughts to save you hundreds of hours of your life.
You may ask, is it then a dry abstract of the book? Not at all! On the contrary, a summary is written in such an engaging way that you can’t put it down. And all the insights and quotes are highlighted in such a remarkable way that it’s very pleasing to read and — most importantly — very easy to remember.
I figured that such a tactic significantly helps stay consistent and form a sustainable reading habit, which I struggled with for many years before discovering Headway. The bottom line is that it is much easier to have a proper follow-through when you have a clear and attainable goal, like reading one 15-minute summary a day.
Additionally, the challenges vary not only in their topics but also in their length. For instance, some take 14 days, and some — 28, as the Success one. Yet, no matter how long it takes, you stay motivated till the very end. Why so?
For example, you can earn different achievements throughout the challenge, making you eager to collect all of them. It is particularly satisfying to look at your ‘hall of fame’ full of badges for being a diligent reader.
Furthermore, you get to compete with your friends and millions of other users worldwide, which is incredibly inspirational. After all, if I’m challenging my Success, I have to be the absolute number one and not lose my streak by any means. What’s the fun without a bit of competition, right?
Why am I so sure that reading is the key to a successful and fulfilled life?
Reading is even more influential than ever in today’s world of primarily visual perception. And, of course, it’s crucial because the transmission of different knowledge would be poor without books. Thus, the more I read with Headway’s help, the better I see how it empowers me, lets me expand horizons, and transfers other people’s life experiences into my own.
Always there when needed
You’ll be as surprised as I was: you can also listen to all summaries (and there are more than 1,000 on the app)! That is quite impressive, right?
So, for example, when I’m driving to work — I turn the Headway app on to absorb knowledge and don’t waste my precious time. And whenever I choose between listening to some music, a podcast, or a book, I prefer the third option with a high probability. It makes me feel proud of myself.
One more advantage, which I’d like to mention — all books are available for reading and listening offline. And all those benefits together make the process so irresistible!
‘Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.’
Jim Rohn
Favorite feature — now my memory is my strongest muscle!
Not only are challenges engaging and motivating tools on the Headway app, but also is this unique feature called Spaced Repetition. Quickly it became one of my favorite activities to do every morning while drinking coffee.
Spaced Repetition’s main goal is to train your memory, and mine was happy to be boosted. In every book you read or listen to, you can highlight key insights you definitely want to remember — and they become flashcards.
Brainy, the lovely mascot of the Headway app, will remind you to go through your cards and refresh your knowledge from time to time. Sounds practical, right?
Headway gets me
It just does. Out of the many apps I’ve used, I’ve never felt such a connection as I do with Headway.
Here, in my hand, I have a whole library with books that make me more confident and help me live my dream life. I am not afraid of making mistakes anymore.
Now I truly believe in myself.
Want to know what skill was critical for me to improve during the Success challenge? Focus. To be honest, and I think you’ll understand me, it’s tough to concentrate nowadays. I had a problem focusing on routine work tasks, and the Success challenge helped me develop my ability to abstract away from the outer world.
Plan for a better life
If you are reading this, it means you’re almost captivated by my advice. And I can assure you — your life is going to change in so many ways! I remember doubting myself, waiting for the right answer and the right moment. But the truth is, there are no absolutely right answers and moments in our world. So decide now and listen to what your inner voice tells you.
And I’m sure it says the exact words mine earlier said.
‘Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.’
Margaret Fuller
So, download the Headway app and join the community of people willing to evolve!
