This year (2020), I set out to make an effort to start doing something I hadn’t really done much of before: read. To be fair, I read all of the time, but reading complete books is not something that has occurred extremely often. As a computer person, many of the things I read included online articles or blog posts about some technical feat or the latest news about technology or software I was interested in. As a self-described entrepreneur, I would find interest in reading anything that would help me get to the nest level from a business perspective, whether that was the latest software to help automate some part of the business or the newest strategies on how to gain customers or traffic or market your services. But that was about it.
One of the reasons I set out on this new journey was due to this frustration that I noticed within myself where I felt as though I was no longer learning about much of anything. Obviously, I might learn about the newest gadget or a new technique on how to approach and solve some technical problems. Hey, I even got really good at writing code in GoLang (my current favorite language), but I felt a lack of learning things of substance.
What may be more interesting about this idea is that reading has never really been my thing, unless it was something that I found extremely interesting. For example, in AP Language in High School, we were forced to read one of my favorite books, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. This book changed my perspective on reading as a whole and gave me my first experience with a book that I just couldn’t put down. However, outside of the few books from that class, reading remained a thing that needed to be done solely because it had to be. Often times, I would find a way to gain the necessary information without having to actually read the book at all. Especially in college, I spent more time finding and solving problems based on theories and algorithms than actually reading the books necessary (which may or may not have helped me, no idea). As a person who learns best by doing, this has always worked for me. However, now that I am interested in learning things that I can’t always just immediately apply, the struggle has been real.
A few months into this journey of intentionally reading, and I can say that I have never been more excited. Transitioning from reading primarily technical books and articles to whatever class of books I find myself reading now has actually begun to show me the importance of consistently reading, and why so many leaders (whether in business, politics, or just life as a whole) discuss the importance of reading daily. While I fully intend to write a post on many of the books that I have read and will continue to write as I read more, I think that finding a good list of books that I was immediately interested in was key to starting off my journey. While finding many books online that were highly suggested for either self-improvement or business growth and entrepreneurship, the set of books that I ended up starting with was suggested by @CVRLNE. I actually started the year off with The One Thing, which I think I have already told nearly everyone in my life about at least once and how excited I was to read it. A simple concept and mentality, but changed my approach entirely on how I approach a multitude of things in life.
As discussed in the book Atomic Habits, one of the key differences is how perspective. It has been interesting to see how my perspective on reading has transitioned from reading due to a requirement towards more of reading based on my own desires and interest. I will write more on the impacts some of my favorite books have had on me in a different post, but until then ✌🏽.