About 30 years ago, executive leadership coach Lolly Daskal, who has worked with hundreds of millionaires and billionaires, started reading a book a day to get into the heads of the world's most successful people.
"I realized that there was so much information out there," she tells CNBC. "But I didn't have the relationships to meet these folks with knowledge." For instance, Daskal realized she probably couldn't get face-time with Warren Buffett, "but if I read his book I could know how he thinks," she says.
She decided to incorporate the habit into her morning routine: "Every morning I read a book. That's my exercise time. Some people exercise their body — I exercise my mind."
After paging through thousands of texts over the past three decades — from business and psychology books to biographies and poetry — Daskal continues to revisit one in particular: "Man's Search for Meaning," by Viktor Frankl, which she rereads every year on her birthday.
"I first read it when I was 18 years old. It changed my life," she says of the 1946 memoir, which chronicles the author's time laboring in four Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz. "Then when I reread it, it gave me wisdom. Then I reread it again and it gave me perspective. Now, I reread it on my birthday every year."
The biggest takeaway for Daskal is that, "when you are no longer able to change a situation, or when you are challenged by your situation, then you must change yourself," she tells CNBC. "There are some things that are going to be out of our control, but we can take back control by changing ourselves."
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