How to Fall in Love with Reading
The following post is from EPIC: 101 Short Stories, Essays, and Insights to Improve Communication Skills
A small fragment of the population read for fun.
The rest view it as work.
I’m not against video games, watching tv, and other leisure activities.
To each their own.
But I do want to give you some tips on learning HOW to read.
And by how, I’m referring to making reading fun.
First things first, the question is…
Why are you reading?
Is there an underlying narrative?
This is where I think a lot of people mess up.
I believe you should have a side hustle.
Because it gives your reading journey a target.
I’m sure you heard the quote that the average CEO reads 50+ books a year.
They are reading like that because they are working on building an organism.
That organism just happens to be a business.
Without working on any organism, whether it be a business, your body (fitness), another person (like raising a kid), reading will always feel like work.
When you are working on improving SOME kind of organism, that’s when the game changes.
Now reading is like solving a big puzzle.
For the 2nd step, I’d say to ask for less book recommendations.
‘Why shouldn’t I ask for too much reading recommendations in the beginning?’
Because spotting the wrong book is just as important as spotting the right book.
You see, the viewpoint of content is subjective.
‘What would you say determines what I find valuable?’
Your experiences.
A person who is working on building a business will gravitate more towards a business book.
A person who is trying to be a sci-fi author will gravitate more towards a sci-fi book.
By spotting which books do NOT resonate with you, you’ll be able to better spot when you stumbled on the right one.
3rd step is to have somewhat of a discipline.
For myself, I try to read 20 minutes a day.
I don’t say 2 hours a day.
Because I don’t know if I can commit that many hours based on my schedule.
For others, they may be able to.
That’s up to you.
But by saying, ‘Yo, read 20 minutes,’ I am capable of meeting my bare minimum requirements.
Here’s one bonus tip.
This may not work for you.
But it works for me:
Rotate between a nonfiction and fiction book during your reading session.
Because certain times, you may be reading a book, then after some time, you start getting bored.
That’s when you can put that book down and open the other one.
By having 2 books in your rotation, it feels like you are entering more worlds.
This bonus tip may fall flat for some.
So don’t try it for too long if it has you feeling distracted.
I do want to stress though….
If you’re naturally not the type of person who enjoys reading for fun…
Then I recommend starting to work on some sort of organism.
Have a network that needs constant maintenance.
And target your reading efforts around that!
That’s what begins the readers journey.
If you want to take it a level further to commit to the reader’s journey, buy a bookshelf.
These are all suggestions.
Ultimately, you want to decide which path works best for you.
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