Make Lists to Achieve Your Goals

Michael Competielle
4 min readSep 6, 2021
Photo by Holden Baxter on Unsplash

I’m a filmmaker that specializes in sound. With each passing day, I’m moving closer and closer to my goal of writing and directing documentary films. How does one become a documentary filmmaker? They take the Werner Herzog Masterclass and follow his advice.

“Read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read…if you don’t read, you will never be a filmmaker.”
Werner Herzog

Daily I have a rigorous reading routine. Most of my books line the shelves of every vertical surface in my home. Begging to be opened and absorbed. To optimize my time, I listen to audiobooks. My local public library offers up to five free audiobooks per month and I take advantage of Audible’s five-dollar book deals and purchasing credits in bulk.

I’ve slowly yet steadily increased the intensity of my audible reading goals by gradually increasing the playback speed. Currently I “read” or listen to books at double the speed. Occasionally I’ll miss a word or passage and I’ll rewind fifteen seconds and relisten. Point is I read a lot of books.

Reading is a neverending lifelong process. If you are a reader, you’ll never ever finish.

For the most part, I only read non-fiction. Life is too short and interesting to waste time with fiction. Memoirs, self-development…

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