If You Think You Hate Reading, This is For You…
I love learning and have always been super curious about the world / people since I can remember but prior to this year I wasn’t reading at all.
How could this be?
Simple. I used to try reading books just for the hell of it. I didn’t have a reason or know what information I was looking for. Not smart.
I’d randomly select books and so I would find that I’d have to almost force myself to read these books because I felt like I had to, since I knew the benefits that reading came with and I badly wanted to reap those benefits. What I didn’t realize is that when you know what information you’re seeking, the world opens up for you.
I do, however, remember being in college and reading about neuroscience during the weekends for fun. As you can imagine, reading books about something I was interested in didn’t feel like much work but I never put two and two together.
It wasn’t until years later when I made a conscious decision to start reading a book a week and picked up a business book that I had an “aha” moment. This was a BIG moment for me because I realized that if I was actually interested in the topics I was reading about, I would naturally want to read and would retain the information simply because I’m invested in the topic, so wanting to read now came with little effort.
You don’t hate reading, you’re just reading things you have no interest in.
You shouldn’t read just to say you read, you should read to learn. When you read with a purpose, it’s a different experience.
I think this is especially useful if you’re the type of person that doesn’t “like” reading because if you’re reading with a purpose, you’re naturally going to be interested in what you’re reading and therefore, easily learn.
If you’re interested in finance and I find you reading a book about cooking, we have a problem. If you don’t know why you’re doing something, that’s a problem.
Things are meaningless when you don’t have clarity. This is with EVERYTHING in life, even reading. Reading is a lot more enjoyable when you’re purposeful and intentional.
If you’re reading a book and you find yourself bored to death, of course you’re not going to want to read. Why would you?
Don’t engage in things you have no interest in, it will never end well.
You’re not going to exert effort into understanding something you genuinely do not care about, this is how humans operate on a fundamental level.
If you want to start getting into reading, think about something that piqued your interest recently, something that you genuinely want to know more about. Then, do a google search of the best selling books on that topic and pick one. OR, think about someone you heavily admire. It could be an athlete, a business person, whatever, and then pick an autobiography on them.
It really comes down to knowing who you are and what you’re into.
Take things slow, like everything else, reading becomes easier with practice.
Try reading for just 5 minutes a day and then increase that time as the days go on. You’ll find yourself being able to read for 15 minutes, then 30 minutes and eventually an hour.
I aim to read an hour a day, sometimes I do more, sometimes I do less, depending on the day but it started out with me reading for just 20 minutes a day. If you would’ve told me that I would be reading for an hour or more, I’d be shocked because I just didn’t think I was capable of doing that. BUT it’s so easy now because
- I’ve built up the tolerance.
- I know who I am and what I’m interested in. I’ve got a clear idea of what I’m going to be into, for the most part, so seeking out books is easy.
If you don’t know what you like, you can start backwards, think about the topics you don’t like and then go for the opposite of those things. When picking books, it’s also important to be mindful of the level or skillset those books are aimed at.
If you’re interested in finance but don’t have any prior knowledge on finance, don’t pick up a book that’s made for people that are highly advanced in their finance journey, that’s not going to help you.
If you want to level up, you should aim to read a book a week.
Reading a book a week might sound overwhelming to you right now but I promise you, it’s actually very, very easy to do.
Let’s break this down:
The average book is about 200–400 pages, if you divide that by 7, that means you only need to read 28–57 pages a day to complete a book within a week.
Figure out how long it would take you to read that many pages and go from there. The more you do this, the more you’ll improve and be able to speed up your reading / understanding.
At the end of the day, reading a book a week is a habit and a standard that you can set out for yourself. You can decide that you want to start reading more and then become a person that reads, period. It’s really that simple.
If you decided to make it your goal to read a book a week, I recommend carrying a book with you wherever you go. Rarely do I leave my apartment without a book in my hand because I know that if at some point I have some downtime, I can read. You don’t have to read in one full setting, you can break up your reading sessions to span across the day.
Another thing to keep in mind too — if you start reading a book and you find yourself not enjoying it, stop reading it. You’re not bound to any book. Drop it and move on to the next one. Lots of books in the sea.
I think people underestimate the power of books.
You’re literally able to tap into the minds of wildly successful people. These people spend hours and hours, even years pouring their accumulated knowledge into a single book that we then get to read in just a couple days or even a few hours.
We have the world at our finger tips. We can order a book from Amazon and suddenly have years and years of knowledge condensed into a book. I don’t know what could possibly be more valuable than that.
There’s a reason the most successful people in the world read.
When you have people like Warren Buffet dedicating five to six hours of his day to reading, you have to question it. Clearly there is something there.
Any highly successful person is reading, no if, buts or maybes.
Bill Gates reads about 50 books a year. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Rihanna, ALL of these people are reading, there’s a reason for that. It’s essential for success.
Knowledge is power, it’s what allows you to execute and take action. Knowledge allows you to know that things exist. If you know something is possible and you know how something works, then you’re more prone / willing to take action and engage in something.
I want you to think of the smartest person you know in your life right now, I can guarantee you this person is probably reading a good amount.
You’ve got to realize that people don’t just know things, sure there are some geniuses out there but the average smart person has just built up their fountain of knowledge overtime by doing simple things like reading.
For me, my dad is someone that comes to mind. Any topic, he has knowledge on it, it’s mind blowing but he reads every single day and I’d say spends a lot of his free time — reading. So, it’s not surprising that he’s knowledgeable on a wide range of subjects and is able to talk about them with confidence.
Stay curious. Be present. When you’re curious and open, you naturally want to learn and know things. As a result, reading becomes a no brainer.
Reading a book a week is probably the easiest thing you can start to do almost immediately and be certain that it’ll improve your life and push you forward. It’s that powerful. Don’t take my word for it, try it out for yourself.
