Three mistakes to avoid in 2020 if you want to read more, faster and better.

“If you are not inspired by a book, drop it. Finishing a book is nowhere near as important as actually learning and gaining from it.” – Jay Shetty

You certainly know many reasons why reading is so important. But have you identified your own reasons why you should read or why you are reading books? 

Do you read a book because someone said so or you read because you want to know something specific in a subject or topic that interests you?

How can you read better? Reading better is about trying different methods or techniques of reading until you find that which resonates with you.

What makes a successful reader? Is that determined by how many books you have finished in a month or a year or vs how much information you gained or learned for that book?

Reading is a fun and enjoyable activity or skill when done correctly. Apparently, there are three biggest mistakes that many people make about reading, hence they don’t get better or successful at it.

1.    They think books need to be read from cover to cover

Let’s face it, some books are terribly written and make you feel frustrated instead of enjoying them, while others are classics, written by authors who lived way ahead of their time. Jay Shetty capped it best when he said “If you are not inspired by a book, drop it. Finishing a book is nowhere near as important as actually learning and gaining from it.”

The most important thing is that you need to know why you are reading a specific book. Primarily, says Philosopher Newell Dwight Hillis “books are to be read for information and mental strength. The hunger of the body for bread and fruit is not more real than the hunger of intellect for facts and principles.”

2.    They make reading all about willpower, instead of love power.

If you are dragging yourself on every word, struggling through every page and rushing so that you can finish the book, it means you are relying on your willpower, Instead of love power. Love power means you are engaged and engrossed in a book, you are motivated and inspired as you are reading and at the same time, grasping great ideas, concepts and stories that expand your horizons.

Sometimes, you would enjoy a book to a point of getting lost in thoughts and that’s how other people escape the real world - through reading. Only books that activate your love power are to be read from cover to cover because you gain more from them and become eager to share with others what you have learned.

3.    They don’t schedule time to read daily and only read when they feel like it.

Whatever skill you want to be good at; practice and self-discipline goes a long way. If you want to be a great author, schedule time either 45 minutes or an hour a day to write. It’s no different with reading. In fact, reading is a prerequisite for writing, you cannot write if you don’t read simply because you don’t have the tools or capacity to do so.

If you feel more groove in the morning than in the evening when you are reading, then schedule at least 30 minutes as part of your morning routine to read. The more you do it, it becomes a habit and the better you get at it.

Now that you are aware of these mistakes, the next step is to ask yourself, what topic is of great interest for you and want to know more about, instead of asking what book should I read next? Don’t read a book because someone told you so, unless you asked for recommendations on a specific subject you want to venture into.

This is easy for me to do because as a blogger, I decide ahead of time which topic I will be focusing on; let’s say, for the month of February, I chose communication as my topic of interest. Therefore, I will read books that talks about communication for the whole month.

Other topics of interest that I read and write about include leadership, health, or any that is related to self-development.

Generally, people read for different reasons and you certainly know yours. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg says he reads books to learn and educate himself about different cultures and backgrounds. Bill Gates read about 50 books a year, mainly business, health, engineering and diseases while Oprah Winfrey calls reading her personal path to freedom.

The act of reading avidly improves vocabulary - the broader your vocabulary, the better your diction. With impeccable diction, elocution skyrocket and consequently one become articulate and assertive.

When you know why you want to read and have identified your topic of interest, following these three simple tips will help you read more, better and faster in 2020.

a)    Find the Ted talk or YouTube video of any book that you find to be relevant to your chosen topic, this will help you to get principles and ideas of that book including its essence in less than 15 minutes. After watching that video, it will be easy to decide whether the book is worth your time or not.

b)    Look at the table of content and highlight key chapters and areas you really want to dive into. You don’t have to read every chapter, focus only on those that interest you. Unless you find all the chapters relevant and fascinating to you, then you can read the whole book, cover to cover.

Ensure that you read the introduction and the first chapter because most authors tell you how to read a book in the introduction or first chapter. Even within a chapter, you can skip to subheadings and divisions that you find inspiring and thought provoking.

c)    To read faster, use your finger as a guide to read at your own pace and improve with time. Jay Shetty says we need to try and “Focus more on stronger words in a sentence, you can read the most important 4 – 6 words in a 12-word paragraph and still extrapolate the same meaning."

In addition, you can decide to read the first and last three lines of a paragraph, to contextualize whether you want to read that paragraph or not. Some authors put so much effort at the beginning and end of a paragraph in trying to highlight central ideas of the entire chapter.

Most of us have this wrong fixation or propensity to read every word in every page and rush through to finish a book without getting anything of value from it. Consequently, we fail to explain to the next person what was the book all about and we end up not being fulfilled and inspired to read anymore.

After finishing each chapter, Jay Shetty proposes the use of the 3-S formula in order to gain more from a book.

i.              Write down a Story that inspired you or moved you.

ii.             Write down a Statistics that you thought blew your mind

iii.            Make a note of something you want to Share with someone else

To conclude, I will hand over to these great authors to tell you about the joys and importance of reading, maybe you can relate to some of their sentiments.

“Within the covers of a single book are ideas that, if acted upon, have the power to rescript every part of your life. Few things are as smart as investing in becoming a better thinker and developing a stronger mind.” -  Newell Dwight Hillis

"Relentless learning is one of the main traits of an open and powerful person. And an obsessive and on-going self-education is one of the greatest survival tactics to go through turbulent times. The best people always seem to have the biggest libraries.” Robin Sharma

“Thank God for books, cheering our solitude, soothing our sickness, refining our passions and out of defeat leading us to victory.” - Newell Dwight Hillis