Category / Reading

Book Reading Goals

I don’t do new year’s resolutions. Not in years. I find them worthless. I think it’s the term ‘resolution’ itself that’s a problem. If I’m aiming to do something I’ll set a goal instead and if I want it to actually work I’ll plan out how I’m going to go about achieving it.

Unlike a new year’s resolution most of my goals are not linked to the start of the year. If I decide I need a new goal it can be started anytime and can have any time-line that makes sense.

The biggest exception to this is my book reading goal which I first set several years ago and have reset every year since. It’s an exception because it goes from the beginning of the year and runs to the end. At this stage it’s more of a standing goal than a yearly goal.

All throughout my childhood I loved books. I read as much as I could. Even going so far as to read by torchlight, under the covers of my bed, after my bedtime. I read at least a book a week, usually more. That continued until college when the number of books I read dropped dramatically into single digits.

After college I started working but the number, with a couple of exceptions the number of books I read each year stayed low. In 2009 I read thirteen books. In 2010 I read eleven.

It was then I decided that I needed to read a minimum of twelve books a year. A book a month. A reasonable goal.

The first year I put the goal in place I read forty four books. I considered bumping the goal up to twenty four or fifty two for the following year. From the first year I knew I could manage it. I kept the number at twelve in the end. Mainly because reading is something I enjoy and not something I want to feel under pressure with. I’ve kept the goal the same every year since, hitting a low of sixteen book and a high of sixty three along the way.

Not that the number matters. It’s just a way to remind myself to read when it would be easier to watch tv. Easier doesn’t mean more enjoyable, simply that it provides the path of least resistance.

Goals are guides to help us decide where to focus. They are, at least for me, different than resolutions. Resolutions are just talk. A goal has to be more carefully planned and thought out. It might just be a difference in terminology but I find it means all the difference in how I think about it and therefore go about achieving it.

by Colin Brosnan

Spark

Books, even bad books, can provide a spark that set ideas aflame.

I read a lot of books and try to read a good mix of fiction and non-fiction. Generally, the ideas come from the non-fiction books, though not always. Business and creativity books work best for me. Often I’ll read these in the hope that something sparks and lights a fire.

The same can be said for other types of reading material. Read articles, essays, research, blogs, whatever it is that works for you.

It’s not about how good the book is. It’s about finding that suggestion or piece of information that triggers a tangential thought. That’s the spark.

by Colin Brosnan

Heed It or You Don’t Need It

Heed It or You Don’t Need It

Articles, tutorials, videos, podcasts – if you want to learn something new the internet has you covered. But that great content is only any good if you follow through on it. It’s only any good if you DO.

If all you do is read that great tutorial you haven’t learned anything. You must put it into practice. That video won’t do anything for you unless you’re building off it. You’re fooling yourself into thinking you’re helping yourself. You’re procrastinating. You’re putting off the doing.

So stop. Close that article. Close that video. Start doing.

Start writing, or taking photos, or building websites, or building apps, or making furniture, or whatever it is you aspire to do.

Stop thinking you need to know more than you do now before you start. When you start you will be terrible. That’s okay. Be terrible. Revel in how bad you are. Celebrate it. This is the worst you’ll ever be.

Without starting you can’t improve. Reading about it is no substitute for doing. You still have to start. You can’t read about being a photographer and get to say you’re a photographer. You have to take photos. You can’t read about building websites and say you’re a web developer. You have build a website.

Start with the basics. Yes, you can use a tutorial as a guide. Just don’t use it to avoid the doing.

Once you’ve started, once you’ve actually done something, keep going. Now you know where you’re weak. Now you can find a tutorial about that. How can you improve? Try again. Do again. Read again.

You haven’t started at all if all you do is read tutorials, watch videos, listen to how-tos. Heed it or you don’t need it.

Enough reading. Enough watching. Enough listening. Start doing.

by Colin Brosnan