The Importance of Reading

Developing a love for reading is a skill set that can be cultivated.

And it’s an important skill set to cultivate if you plan to be a creator.

A content creator is an artist at the end of the day.

And a big part of artistry is learning to produce AND consume.

There’s a misconception that when you start producing your own art that you stop consuming.

Nope!

Couldn’t be further from the truth.

Strategic consumption is a habit that you cultivate for life.

And one of the best ways to consume is thru reading.

That’s what allows the content creator to be a magician.

Age like fine wine.

Why is reading so important?

Because it is a cornerstone habit.

‘A what??’

A habit that slowly starts to seep over to many other parts of your life…

Can Reading Be Fun?

Do you view reading as a chore?

‘Hell yea haha.’

Then there are a few reasons for this.

It may be because you lack a life purpose.

When you don’t have any form of a purpose, reading becomes work.

But when you do have a semblance of a purpose, you realize that you can learn from ANYONE.

And that’s when the information in books start to take up a stronger life.

Another reason you view reading as a chore is because you are reading the wrong things.

This causes tension.

The key to reading is to read about subjects that spark your curiosity.

That is not to say that you should avoid reading topics that are required for your profession or school.

But on the side, ask yourself what kind of curiosities you possess?

And then see if you can find reading material on that.

Reading can be fun, but you need to do your best to cultivate a life purpose & listen to the curiosities.

The Importance of Reading for a Growing Adult

When Elon Musk was asked how he learned to design rockets…

He said that he read books.

Warren Buffet has stated that he reads for 6-8 hours a day.

Bill Gates has a reading habit that he has been working on since he launched Microsoft.

These high performers are reading because they understand that the RIGHT information alters behaviors.

And isn’t that what we are all doing?

Doing our best to reach a better behavioral state that leads to internal calmness?

Let’s talk about 3 big benefits of reading.

1. Great Writers are Great Readers

Ask any great writer what is one of the HIGHEST ROI acts in their day.

And they will say reading.

It’s similar to filmmakers who say that watching classical to modern films is important.

Why?

Because filmmakers improve their encyclopedic knowledge of film when they WATCH.

Likewise, writers understand the importance of reading because it gets your mind to think in words.

It allows you to be more structured with your writing voice.

Hell, it helps you to FIND a writing voice in the first place!

The more well-read you are, the more you have to work with in terms of being a prolific writer.

2. Enhanced Growth

The average CEO reads a fuck ton every year.

Why?

Don’t they have real work to do?

They are doing real work.

At a certain point, we want to work less with our body, so we can work more with our minds.

And that’s possible when you begin working intelligently.

At the initial stage of learning anything, we are moving A LOT.

Gathering data.

But after a certain period of time, you gotta make sense of that data.

And that’s where reading comes in.

Most meaningful topics out there has a book written on it.

When you use your data and reading in harmony to extract information…

(Information = Meaningful knowledge)

That’s when you finally work smart, not only hard.

3. A Level of Calmness

I was surprised how much calmer I got when I invested in learning more about history.

It’s as though learning history made me improve my emotional intelligence.

Why?

It’s because as you study history, you notice a lot of things have happened before.

Especially things that you thought were ONLY personal to you.

When you realize that there were people in the past who had problems similar to yours…

You start to understand that you’re not alone.

Not only that, you are able to see how they moved.

By seeing that they survived or were able to extract meaning from that tough experience…

You feel calm.

Knowledge gives you power when you are able to apply that knowledge directly to your life.

That’s when a level of bravery is formed.

How to Incorporate a Reading Habit into your Life

The importance of reading can go on for ages.

But at this point, if you are still reading, then you’re most likely sold on the benefits.

The question is, how can you incorporate this lifestyle into your life?

Here are a few tips:

Read Anything and Make Yourself Aware

This blog isn’t meant to shit on reading short-form content and only read books from here on out.

Lol that would be dumb because I am literally writing a blog right now.

The smart thing to do is read anything.

Make yourself aware that you are reading.

Bring conscious awareness to something that we often do subconsciously nowadays.

From the symbols on your calculator, blogs, tweets, advertisements etc.

When you prime your mind to read anything, it becomes easier to read books.

Because now it doesn’t feel like work.

Rather, it feels like something that you normally do.

It’s like brushing your teeth.

Have Precision to your Book Reading

One of the best things to do with your books is to divide it into sections.

If you want to finish a book on the weekdays…

Then divide the book into 5 parts.

And read each section corresponding to each of the weekdays.

If you want to give yourself 2 weeks to read a book, then divide it into 14 parts.

You get the point.

When you break down a book into small parts, it looks less intimidating.

The mind loves targets.

Embrace Fiction

There’s a misunderstanding that fiction books are for little kids.

Not at all.

In fact, fiction helps us improve empathy, storytelling skills & creativity as a whole.

Plus, it adds a level of variety to your reading list.

It’s a great way to have a level of excitement when you are going thru reading material.

You can pick up the stuff that you read as a little kid.

For every 4 nonfiction books you read, try to throw one 1 fiction book in there.

Compounding Knowledge Shows the Importance of Reading

We hear about the compound effect in terms of money, relationships, habits, etc.

But the beauty is that it extends into knowledge.

The smarter that you get, the smarter that you get.

Learning is a lifelong journey, that you can keep getting better at.

If you are going thru a tough time, or are bored as shit, do your best to cultivate a reading habit.

It’s a skill set that will make you a better writer, mature faster, more creative & much more.

The better that you read, the easier it is to find connections in this world.

That’s the importance of reading.

There is 1 big truth.

We are all just led there in different ways.

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– ArmaniTalks