How to Master Any New Topic in 6 Months
Revisiting the E-v-E Ratio

The 5 AM Miracle Podcast, hosted by Jeff Sanders

Episode #605: How to Master Any New Topic in 6 Months: Revisiting the E-v-E Ratio

Jeff Sanders
Good morning and welcome to The 5 AM Miracle, episode #605: How to Master Any New Topic in 6 Months: Revisiting the E-v-E Ratio.

I am Jeff Sanders, and you have reached the podcast that is dedicated to dominating your day before breakfast.

I am a keynote speaker and corporate trainer, and to learn more about that, head over to jeffsanders.com slash speaking.

Now in the episode this week, I'll break down the EVE ratio, which stands for entertainment versus education.

We'll also dig into how you are so close to your next breakthrough, and of course, how to master any new topic in six months or less.

Let's dig right in.

So next to me on my desk right now, I have a stack of books.

And if you've seen my house in the last, I don't know, 10, 12, 15 years,

what you have seen is a stack of books that gets larger and smaller and larger and smaller as I invest heavily into more books.

books and then purge as many as I possibly can because I'm in this constant cycle

of personal growth. And I want to make sure that the books that are around me

are books that matter. They are books that speak to who I am, where I am,

and most importantly, where I am going next. And so if you look at my current

collection of books, I have purged all of the ones that no longer appeal to me in

terms of my season of growth I am moving myself into and the ones that are

front and center reflect my current focus.

And the stack of books that I brought with me today on my desk are all related

to one particular topic.

In this case, it's finance and investing and trying to figure out all the nitty

gritties of improving the money side of our personal and professional lives

for my wife and I.

And it has been an epic focus for the last six months or so.

And what's really fascinating is that whenever I take on a new topic,

the very first thing I do is reach for a book.

It is always my go-to.

And it's one thing that continues to blow my mind just how simple it is to acknowledge a problem in your life or a goal you want to achieve.

And you could take the approach of saying, well, I don't know how to do whatever this thing is.

I have no idea how you would tackle topic X.

And you stop there and simply say, I don't know, that's it.

And you walk away.

Well, the problem is that issue will never be resolved or you're just going to cross your fingers and hope that some magic that happens in the future and you figure it out.

But the reality is, is that for most problems in life, if you have a problem or you have a goal, you are also the solution.

And so my question to you and to myself frequently is, what are you going to do about it?

And I think the best thing to do, especially for a topic where you feel uneducated, a topic where you feel uneducated, a topic where you feel.

feel like I just don't know where to begin. Well, go get a book. Go get a really good

book and read it. Sit down and physically read an actual physical book, not digital,

not audio. Sit down and read the book. It sounds so old school to say that,

and I get that. However, books still exist and books are still amazing. They have been for a

long time, and I hope they stay that way, and I think that they will. So now let's run through

with some of these books that I read in the last six months. So you get some

context as far as where I've been. The very first book that I read back in

April of this year is a book that I have mentioned multiple times on this show since I

read it because it was so impactful, which is the simple path to wealth by J.L.

Collins. If you're looking for any book to start with, start here. It was a

fantastic choice that I made on accident. It was a book that I purchased and sat on my desk for two

years, and I didn't touch it. And then when I finally did, it changed everything about

my perception on how I would approach investing specifically. So if you're looking

for a great first book, The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins is fantastic.

The second book that I listened to as an audiobook was actually called The Introduction

to Trading Psychology by Mike Bear. This book was actually about day trading,

but more so than that, the psychology behind it, which I was just curious about

in terms of how to think about money and how those who are invested in money

on a day-to-day basis think about what they do.

And one thing I've realized that it has become more important to me than ever

is how I think.

And I think that if I think that if I think about thinking more, what I will then come

to the conclusion of, this is really awkward sentence, Jeff, is that eventually I

I will wind up making better decisions because I am thinking differently about the topic at hand.

And so if you are looking for a way to approach something complicated in your life, it is imperative that you change how you think.

And books are fantastic for this process.

And so this particular book that I read was fine.

I wasn't that fascinated by it.

But I'm still curious with the possibility of changing my perception on any topic and then seeing how that changed.

my behavior and my results. And for that purpose alone, this book was helpful.

The third book that I read was called The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by

John Seabogel. John Bogle was the founder of Vanguard. He also made popular

low-cost index funds and was a fantastic influence in the investing world for decades.

This book is also a fantastic introduction to common sense investing. It pairs

directly with J.L. Collins book. And so if you, it's kind of the same book, honestly,

read twice. So you could read either one. I think the J.L. Collins book is way better,

but they have the same concepts there. The fourth book that I read was called the

only investment guide you'll ever need by Andrew Tobias. This is a mouthful of a book.

And by that I mean, he covers so many topics, rapid fire. It really is, to a certain

degree the only guy you'll need for investing. However, that's not true at all.

It really is an introduction to lots of various topics and gives lots of advice.

I think if you are new to money, this book can be a game changer. If you've been

around for a while, the book basically is a review of a lot of things you already know.

I didn't pull anything out of it that I could really act on, but I think that if you're

looking for a fantastic introduction to money and investing and just what is this

stuff, how does it work? This book can really open your eyes to lots of things

to then go explore and learn more about. The fifth book, and this one is fantastic,

is The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. This is required

reading, and I don't say that ever on this show. Okay, I do say that sometimes,

but this really is required reading for everyone. If you have never read this book,

You might be missing a key concept about what true wealth actually is and who

millionaires truly are.

Now, this book was written in the 90s, and so the data is a bit outdated,

which is rather unfortunate, but the concepts are still legit.

And what you'll pull from this is the reality that true wealth and true

millionaires do not act like you think they do, and they buy things that are different,

and they own things that are different, and the way that they obviously,

operate. It's not what you think, which is such an eye-opener. And so if you want to

not only read this book, but pull away the most important messages, it will then

transform your future. It can't but do that because it's just such a powerful

reality that what we see in the world as far as wealth and the flashiness of wealth

is not wealth at all. It's fascinating. Book number six that I read was called

The Millionaire Choice by Tony Bradshaw. This book is another great introduction

book to money itself, but specifically the reality that becoming a millionaire

is actually a choice. And you can make that choice. And there are certain

behaviors and actions to take that do add up to true wealth over time. And so if you're

looking for a great, once again, introductory book to the millionaire world, this book

is fantastic for that. Book number seven was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Key,

Asaki, the very famous book that's been around for a long time. I do not like

this book, and I have not liked this book for a long time. I reviewed it again just

to confirm that was true, and it is. Yes, there are great concepts in it, but this book

is not for me. There are way better books out there to truly understand wealth and

ways to get ahead in life, and I think that his advice is just weird. I think it's aggressive.

It's not for most people. I know he's popular, and I get it. I'll probably

get hate emails for this alone, but I'm not a fan. Book number eight, another book I

do not like was called Money Master the Game by Tony Robbins. Tony Robbins, though he is

extraordinarily wealthy, like Robert Kiyosaki, he's not a money guy. He is a personal

growth guy, and he's fantastic in the world of personal growth and developments and

psychology, but in terms of money advice, do not read this book. He is confusing. He's

place, his advice is outdated. It's a bad, bad read. Next, number nine was called

investing for dummies. I didn't actually read this book. It's very, very long.

It's more of encyclopedia for investing. If you want a reference book to pull from,

it's great. But honestly, Google also exists. So why have this book? I think it could be

helpful for anyone who likes to have a big, literally huge book around for reference.

referenced. Other than that, I wouldn't touch it.

And finally, book number 10 was called Your Money or Your Life by Vicky

Robin. This book is also extraordinarily popular. I've been around for a very

long time, and I also did not like this book.

And I think the reason why is that the book has almost nothing to do about money

and has everything to do about these kind of life energies that you want to be able to create.

It's very woo-woo.

Yes, it's practical, but no, it is not.

It did not resonate with me whatsoever.

I think it can for some people, but that's kind of the point of all these books.

I listed off 10 of these.

At least half of them are wonderful, and the other half I didn't care for.

Now, what does that mean in terms of investing or finance?

Well, it means that are certain books that will be very effective for me

and certain books that will not.

What does it mean for you?

Exactly the same thing.

Certain books that you read will just hit you like a ton of bricks and you'll say,

oh my gosh, my life has changed forever.

I'm on a whole new path.

And other books, you won't care about it all and you'll find them to be annoying or distracting or confusing.

And that's fine.

There is no obligation in the world personal growth to have a perfect experience

every single time.

In fact, my experience generally is I am reading every single book with one

mission in mind, and that is to find one great idea.

That's it.

I could read 200 pages of a book, and if I get one great idea, it was worth my time.

Now, some of these books, I didn't get that great idea, and that's unfortunate,

but also that's just part of the process.

I still love personal growth.

I will still read more books, and you should as well.

But the entire experience of this,

and this is a really good kind of example of what it means to dig into a new topic,

go at 100%, and then reflect on what took place.

And I just love the fact that so many of these books have changed my life

and changed my perception on finance and investing in money itself.

And now I've actually moved on to a couple of new books.

books on finances and money. I'm wrapping up right now the psychology of money by

Morgan Houssel, which is a wonderful book, as well as I will start probably today,

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. That book has been around for decades.

There is a new updated version, and so hopefully that book will provide some insights

for me as well. Now let's move on from the world of investing and get to the core

topic at hand and talk about that EVE ratio that I mentioned the top of the show.

This is a concept that I first discussed on this podcast way back in 2014,

the very second year the show existed.

Now, the EVE ratio stands for education versus entertainment, which is a concept

that I first learned from Brian Tracy, the very famous author and speaker who was

a guest on this podcast just a few months ago.

Now, this idea is very simple.

You're asking the question, how much time do I spend on entertainment versus education?

And if you ask Brian Tracy, I'm not sure if these numbers came from anywhere,

I think he's made them up, but what he has said in the past is that the average person spends 50 minutes on entertainment for every one minute that they spend on education.

Now, that number, the 50 to 1 ratio here, could be made up.

However, I think it's actually fairly accurate for a lot of people because for a lot of people, they don't spend any time at all in education.

There are no books being read. There are no courses being taken. No mentors to learn from. No conferences to attend. Most people spend zero time learning new things. Maybe they'll accidentally do so watching a video on YouTube or something, but they're not intentionally scheduling time to sit down and learn new things.

And so 50 to 1, though I thought sounded kind of out of the park and extremely extreme, may not be extreme at all.

Of course, the only question for you is, what is your ratio?

How much time do you spend watching TV, surfing the web, looking at social media, going to movies, right?

And not that these things are bad.

These things are part of life and they're wonderful.

But the question is how much of that time is spent on an average week versus how much time do you spend on a average week versus how much time do you spend in

an average week, reading books, learning new concepts, taking new courses.

Maybe you're a student right now and you're in school, and that case, education

would be a very high priority.

But if you're not in school right now, if you're just working your 9 to 5 job,

you're living your life and every week has a certain rhythm to it, it's completely

possible that education is not a priority like it has been in the past.

And maybe your personal goal is to increase the amount of time that you spend learning new

to develop new skills, move yourself forward in the world.

Because let's not kid ourselves here.

We all have problems to solve.

We all have goals to achieve.

The only real question is, what are you going to do about it?

That's always the question.

What is the next action to take?

And the amazing thing about books, the thing that blows my mind repeatedly,

is how many ideas you will get from these.

I said that there were so many investment in finance books that I loved.

Now, why did I love them?

because of the ideas, the new strategies, the tactics, the philosophies, the

psychologies, all these various ways to think differently and then go change my

behavior, change my habits, and get new and better results.

This goes across the board for any new topic that you want to tackle.

If you read the top five or 10 books on any topic, it will absolutely change

your perceptions, give you ideas, give you plenty of action steps more than you have

for. And so I'm not trying to overwhelm you or add new work to your plate,

but kind of, right? The real question about time usage and time management

has to do with what's the most important and high leverage use of your time.

And if you are not committing some of your time every day or at least every week

to direct education and growth, then you have to wonder, is your time being spent

in the best possible way? Now, maybe you're very busy like me, and it's

hard to find time to sit and read a book, in which case, audio books and podcasts,

like this one, of course, are wonderful. About half the books that I read on that

list were audiobooks. I have time, of course, and I'm at the gym lifting weights

to listen to these books while commuting while doing chores. Of course, audio learning

is wonderful. But there's a distinct difference between audio learning and actual, like,

sitting your butt in the chair and reading through a book with a highlighter and a pen and a

It is a very different experience.

And so my question is always, well, which books are best for audio and

which books are best to sit down and actually read physically page by page?

And the answer tends to be books that are more story driven are great for an audio

experience versus books that are more technical.

You're going to want to actually read through like line by line with a pen and paper

and take notes.

And it just depends on the topic at hand.

I would say some of my investing books that I read were really story-based and really were great for psychology and philosophy and just considering various topics.

But others are so detail-oriented that to listen to that as an audiobook would just never really work.

So that's the question for you.

If you're going to tackle a new topic and dig in now, do both of these.

Go get at least one audiobook and one physical book, make the choice as far as which one is best for which, and then dig in on a

daily basis and consume both.

So one thing that has really helped my kind of personal growth in general

is I don't read one book at a time.

My goal is always to read multiple books and that includes at least one

audiobook and at least one physical and then I bounce back and forth between

the two.

And what that does is it reinforces the education side of the EVE ratio because it

reminds me at almost every interval of my day, I could be learning now.

I could be listening to a great audiobook.

I could be sitting down and reading a book physically.

I don't have to watch TV or listen to the radio or just ignore the opportunities

at hand to use my time in a more intelligent way.

The real drive-home message of this episode has nothing to do with books, has nothing

to do with investing, that has to do with how you think about how your time is spent

and how you value growth itself and education itself. And if you want to get the most

value from your time, it's going to be very easy conceptually to say, well, of course

I would want to read a great book. But the real rub here is not the philosophy of education.

It's the practical day-to-day moments when you're tired. You're stressed out. It's the end of the work

day and you don't want to read a book right now. You have no interest in that.

It's been a long day. That's the last thing you want to do. So you turn on the TV.

You grab a beer. You do whatever it is you would do to wind down. But that's the

opportunity to change your life. It's in those moments where we lean for the convenience.

We lean for what's easy. We grab the quick bite, the dopamine hit, the entertainment.

If we can change that behavior, that default response, then we can change that.

change our entire lives. We can reach for something that's actually growth-oriented

and then train ourselves to seek the educational materials more often

and learn to value a book more than a Netflix show.

This is easier said than done.

And of course, the goal here is not to replace Netflix 100% with books.

But to shift that ratio over time and say, I'm going to become the kind of person who is a reader, the kind of person who is a learner, the kind of person who values the growth, the skill development, and the lifelong pursuit of goal achievements, because that's who you want to be as a person.

This is seasonal for me.

I cannot give this speech right now and tell you that I have been perfect in this arena for decades, even though I value personal growth and talk about it all the time.

Life goes in seasons.

And certain seasons for me have been very heavily entertainment based.

I've had seasons where I overeat and gain weight and don't go to the gym.

I have seasons where I don't do my job very well.

We all do.

But the real question is, do you ultimately value a better path?

and are you actively working to move yourself little by little in that direction?

Because this is not about an overnight transition.

This is about the simple day-to-day minutia of small choices, little moments in time,

where you lean towards the right direction a little bit.

You have one less donut and one more banana, one more page of a book and one less minute of a TV show.

These small baby steps can ultimately add up to tremendous,

growth. I mean, to even say to you that I read 10 books in the last six months

is a fascinating reality to me because the six months prior to that,

I read one book. One in six months. And then all of a sudden I read 10.

Well, what was the difference? How did I go from someone who was not valuing education

very well to all of a sudden valuing it like crazy? Now, part of that answer has to do

with seasons of life and my focus. But the actual reality has to be a lot.

to do with curiosity.

This is a concept that gets missed so often in the world of personal growth

because that's the thing that causes us to want to reach for the book and

not the TV show.

We're curious.

We want to learn.

We want to know.

We have questions.

We've all kinds of questions.

And we're looking for answers.

We're looking for advice and those epiphanies and aha moments.

We want more of those like brain busters and breakthroughs.

And the curiosity is the foundation for seeking out the knowledge to begin with.

But if you're not curious, why ask the question?

Why pick up the book?

It doesn't make any sense.

You wouldn't do it at all because there's no ping in your brain to say that's what I'm looking for.

And the thing about books that I have come to really, like, I did undervalue and now I value it more,

is the reality that as you learn more, you become more curious to want to learn more.

curiosity is also a skill.

Being curious over time is something you can develop,

and the more that you fill your mind with this amazing material,

the more that you are then set up to want to learn more itself.

I can tell you right now that as I am exiting this current season of,

you know, massive amounts of investment knowledge,

I'm going to transition into a new season.

Now, I don't yet know what that season is,

but I do know that this current season is winding down.

And so my big question to myself is what will be the next book that I pick up on the next topic that I choose, which of course is based on curiosity, yes, but it's also based on real life.

What current major problems do I need to solve next? What major goals am I striving to achieve next? And that will dictate which books that I grab and what curiosity I then am able to explore because I'm on an adventure of personal growth all that.

the time. That's the lifestyle. That's the mentality. That is the entire pursuit of all

of this, is becoming the kind of person who says, growth matters to me. Education

matters to me. And because it's life transforming, it is absolutely fundamental to growing

into the next and higher version of yourself. Let's juxtapose that with the alternative.

Let's imagine you do not pursue education.

You do not pick up a great book.

You don't have that curiosity.

Where does it lead you?

Well, the problem is that I could say, well, you're going to stay the same.

If you do not grab a new book, you will be where you are a year from now in the exact same place.

But that's not true.

You will actually get worse.

You will decline.

This reality that you're either growing or you're dying is real.

Our bodies are constantly evolving.

We're either working out and eating healthy foods or we're not.

We're either caring for ourselves or we aren't.

So we're either improving and getting healthier or we're actually getting sicker.

We're actually slowly killing ourselves by not caring for ourselves.

And the same thing is true in the world of education and growth.

We're either actively pursuing that or we are not.

And that stagnation and that decay will eat away at you over time.

and you'll become the kind of person who just forgets about books.

You'll become the kind of person who just says, you know, I saw a great Netflix series.

What's the next one?

I saw a great movie last weekend.

What's the next one?

And now the problem is we're pursuing the wrong direction.

We're asking ourselves what the next thing is we could do to block our ability to move forward.

Entertainment is not growth.

It is valuable.

It is necessary.

It's part of life.

I love entertainment, but it is not the point.

It is a fringe element of our existence, but the core has to be the core.

So it's just that question.

Do you value it and will you prove that you value it with your actions?

That is the challenge that I'm going to give to you right here and now.

And we're in a really great season of the year.

This is wrapping up 2025 and the new year is going to be here very soon.

this is an ideal time to leverage the cooler winter weather and to be able to say I'm going to hibernate a little bit, stay home, you know, that's colder outside, it's snowy maybe where you live.

And you say, okay, I'm going to spend these next couple of months in the winter instead of cozying up with a nice little cup of hot chocolate and a nice TV show, just swap out the TV show for a book a little more often.

Spend this time being cozy, being in this mode of hibernation.

That's wonderful. But let that also be the chance to peek that curiosity and move

yourself forward. There is opportunity at every turn to do more. It's just a question

of will you step in or will you not? Now, to wrap this up, let's go back to that

concept that I brought up about mastering a topic in six months or less. I think it's

completely possible for you to become one of the top 2% in any field in the world in

months or less by simply reading books. And that sounds a bit extreme,

but I believe it's absolutely true because the vast majority of people aren't

reading books at all. If you read the top five books, you were already

leaps and bounds ahead of most people. Now, I'll take that a little bit further and say,

not only can you read the best books and you should, and there's are amazing,

but also watch YouTube videos. I cannot begin to express how many YouTube videos I've

also watched in finance and investing. YouTube is a treasure trove of amazing ideas.

It's also a dark black hole of awfulness because there's so much to consume there.

So you have to limit yourself on what you do. But YouTube is such a powerful

educational resource. So if you've read the top 10 books in any topic and you've

watched the top 100 videos on YouTube and you take notes through the whole process

while you're consuming all of this knowledge.

You can then create new projects and action plans and long-term visions

and really put yourself in the driver's seat to take action, set new goals,

new milestones in your life, and see those through.

So yes, you can master a topic, gain new skills, become an absolute expert

in a very short amount of time if you are committed to daily education.

It is incredible how fast we can move when that is the focus.

It's also incredible how little can happen when we don't do anything at all.

The time is going to pass anyway.

It's just that question.

Will you read?

Will you commit?

I hope that you do.

And for the action step this week.

Go and improve.

your EVEE ratio just a little bit. It is shocking how much progress you can make

in any area if you shift your entertainment time down just a bit while shifting

your education time up just a bit. That simple swap can radically move you in the

right direction with exponential benefits down the road. So commit today to reading

just one new book this month and see how that will change your life and work.

Of course, subscribe to this podcast and your favorite podcast app, or go to 5am miracle premium.com for the VIP ad-free experience.

That's all I've got for you here on the 5 a.m. Miracle podcast this week.

Until next time, you have the power to change your life, and all that fun begins bright and early.

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