Reading is among my keys to living a good life.
Despite being an avid reader since childhood, in recent years, I find it increasingly more challenging to stay an actively engaged reader. Whether the cause or the effect, it’s becoming a task I “have to do”, as opposed to something I “get to do”.
My relative success to build and maintain a healthy reading habit has been uneven.
However, there may be hope: I’m building a lifestyle system that has me progressing on a positive trajectory.
But first, I’ve noticed some mistakes I’ve made along the way:
I’ve set “reading goals”, and have failed.
I’ve equated “more” with “better”.
I’ve made reading a “high-friction” activity.
Neil Pasricha once posed this on Twitter: What's one tool, habit, or behavior that helps you read more books?
I’ve come to appreciate Neil’s worldview through thoughts he shares in his writing and his podcast, 3 Books with Neil Pasricha. His guests come from varied walks of life, and his conversations are always colorful in nature. Best of all, when his guests speak to the three books that have impacted their lives, I’m often left at how passionate Neil is for reading, and equally as passionate about others being passionate readers.
So what are my lessons, based on mistakes I've made? Here are three.
I've given up on reading goals. If I can read one page or for one minutes, that counts as a vote for the type of person I want to be more like, a reader. One page will sometimes be ten, or a hundred. But by reading one page, I keep a daily streak alive.
I've stopped saying, I'm going to read x number of books per year. For several years, I'd done this, using Goodreads to chart my progress. The problem? I was focused on quantity, not quality. And, if I fell short of my annual goal, I was a reading failure.
I've reduced the friction for myself as a reader. Anyone who's been around me can see I surround myself with reading materials; magazines, books, devices containing digital and audio books. My reason here is simple: If I have one, five, or 30 free minutes, I "put in my reps" as a reader. By making this easy (a book next to the coffee maker each morning, for example), I reduce any friction, and read more often.
So has this made me a reader again? Not yet. But, with each page I turn, I cast one more vote for the type of person I want to behave more like each day. And one of those types of people, you guessed it, is a reader.
Are you, like me, looking to become a reader again? Check out Neil's stuff at https://www.neil.blog/ . You won't be disappointed, in fact, you'll feel like you have an accountability partner in Neil, rooting for your success!
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