Lesson: Throughout our challenge to build a consistent reading habit, it’s common to encounter obstacles. Often, these obstacles are internal – excuses we tell ourselves that prevent us from following through with our reading plans. This lesson is about introspection and honesty. It’s about recognizing the barriers, often disguised as excuses, that impede our progress.Continue reading Day 27 – What’s Your Excuse?
I think the main excuse I have used has been that “the book is not interesting enough”. While I have continued to read for at least 60 minutes every day of the challenge, I looked forward to my reading time much more when I was getting information from the reading that resonated with where I was emotionally or that taught me something that applied directly to my everyday life. The last two books I’ve read were, Deep Work by Cal Newport and The Practice by Seth Godin. One way to have overcome this barrier would have been to select different books, but my curiosity was triggered by both books. I drifted more when I was making myself focus deeply on material that was just not of real interest to me. I still believe I have learned some helpful ideas from both books, yet reading them was a chore instead of a benefit. So, I delayed reading until I was too tired to do the work possible to maximize my learning during my reading time. I think another issue is that I read them as ebooks so I could not manually underline and annotate. Lesson there is to read hardback or paperback when I really want to Read Slowly, Take Notes, and Apply the Ideas.