In 2022 I read 64 books. Expecting a post about what I learnt? Well, this isn’t exactly it.
I keep a list of the books that I read because in 2015 I wanted to read more. Then I thought about what ‘more’ meant. I realised that I was reading, I was reading, enjoying and finishes books that I liked, so what did ‘reading more’ mean? It made me stop and think, am I doing the thing that I want to do already and don’t know it?
As a stop gap, I started to write down the title and author of each book I read in a notebook and realised, I was reading a lot more than I thought! So I just kept doing it, both the reading and the writing down every book I read, and have done ever since.
Over time I’ve read more and more. Last year was a total anomaly, I’ve used it to grab your attention but to put it in perspective I read 34 books in 2021. But the number has steadily climbed since 2015. Now that it is something I know I want to do over time I’ve streamlined all the things I need to do to keep my habit going.
I have a favourite bookshop that I go to regularly, my Mum gives me a stack of books that she’s read throughout the year for Christmas, I put a little bookshelf at the end of my driveway so anyone could take or leave books and do the same with mine. I know when I might want to set aside time to read and make sure I have a book to hand most of the time.
It’s really tempting to want progress, to do more, without thinking about whether you already are doing it. I speak to clients all the time who want to make ‘more’ content, do more, post more. My first question is always, what are you already doing? Because the answer will usually surprise you. It’s rare that you are starting from scratch.
The better questions are: what are you already doing? Do you enjoy it and does it work for you? So how could you do more of that? And how can you track that? Then you can see how things progress over time.
