5 Tips to Create the Habit of Reading

If you would like to improve your reading skills, I want to share with you today 5 tips that have helped me personally.

Let me start by saying that I'm not an avid reader (yet). My wife and I always laugh because every time I mention a great movie, she says: "I have read the book, but never watched the movie" and I go: "That's from a book?".

Nonetheless, in the last few years, I have decided to improve my reading skills and developed the habit of reading more. I can proudly say that I truly enjoy reading a good book and care for the art of writing.

Know your "Why"

Why do yo wish to read more? Knowing this answer can go a long way for you. This will be the center point to focus when you get carried away or have doubts, which is totally normal when adopting a new habit.

In my own personal case, here are 3 reasons:

• My wife is a book worm - so I naturally have a desire to learn enjoying an activity she enjoys and gives us a new common interest to talk about.
• Better use of my free time - I got really tired of scrolling down through social media, so now, I try picking up a book.
• The genuine desire to expand my artistic creativity - I see people talking with so much passion about books, that it simply intrigues me to experience the same.

Read your language

It's pretty straightforward: start reading in the language you feel more comfortable with. By doing so, you will be able to absorb information a lot faster and fluently.

This might be pretty obvious for most, but it wasn't for me. Spanish is my native language but English has become such a big part of my life too. So I decided to start with books written in Spanish and has made a huge difference in how much I can read and enjoy a book.

Start with what you like

Pick a book about things you feel passionate about. This could be the biography of someone you admire, certain history event you feel intrigue by or a good story of your favorite genre.

When in doubt, you can always refer to the classics like I did. Last year I went to my parent's bookshelf, decided to read one book out of their classic's collection; I randomly picked The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

Although I was very intimidated by this 500 pages book and assumed this would take me all year (I really thought so), I was decided to read it all. My God, what an AMAZING book this is, I had no idea the masterpiece I picked. I was hooked on it since the beginning, I cried in the last pages and it took me about 2 months to finish, which for me was insanely fast.

This just boosted my desire and motivation to read more and more.

Schedule a time

Like with almost everything else in life, if you don't plan it, it most likely won't happen. You need to be intentional on setting aside a time for reading.

Try to find a time in your daily routine when you can unplug from your devices, seat without distractions and go at it.

I personally like reading at night, after the kids are sleeping and all dishes are done; between 9-11pm I get to wind down from the day and enjoy some reading time.

Set an achievable goal

Trying to develop a new habit or skill without an achievable goal, is one of the best ways to fail. A goal should be measurable but also achievable, in other words: realistic.

Meaning, if you are anything like and are not use to reading much, and decide that you will read 1 book per week or read 2 hours a day, you are doom to failure. Instead, try setting a goal that creates discipline from less to more which can mean have different meanings for each person.

My first goal was reading 15 minutes a day, pretty lame I know, but it was realistic and highly achieve. If I was struggling that day, guess what? I only had to do 15 minutes, is not tons; but if was having a good day reading, I could always read for longer.

This created a sense of achievement and allowed my mind to include reading as an enjoyable activity.

If you made it this far, I want to encourage you to pick up a book and try out these tips. There is so much to discover and enjoy in those written pages.

I would really like to know what you are reading now or planning to read next, let's talk!

Cheers,

José Feliú