I hate to admit it, but some days the motivation to read isn’t there. Now, should I read, even if I’d rather take a nap or watch a movie? Let’s discuss.
For me, reading takes effort. It’s not a casual, lounge around the house activity (unless I’m reading my beloved fiction at night). Usually, I’m in a book to learn, which means highlighters, a note-taking system, and a brain pointed in the right direction. So, reading is advancing a goal (in my case, owning Edgewater Bookstore), and to advance is to put the work in when others aren’t willing to do so.
In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius tells us, “The mind can adapt and alter every impediment to action to serve its purpose; something that might have hindered a task contributes to it instead, and something that was an obstacle on the road helps you on your way” (111). He’s telling us to embrace the impediments, the obstacles, and the difficulties of life. This is the core idea of Ryan Holiday’s book, The Obstacle is the Way. By leaning into your challenges, you find your path. You have to get moving, “Because that’s what people do who defy the odds. That’s how people become great at things…they start” (Holiday 71).
Now, let’s get back to reading motivation. If you want to read more books, but you find yourself scrolling on social rather than turning valuable pages, ask yourself this: Why do you want to read books in the first place? If you have a good answer for that, you’ll find your motivation to read every time.
Until tomorrow, read slowly – take notes – apply the ideas.
-Eddy
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Works Cited:
Holiday, Ryan. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Little Book for Flipping Adversity into Opportunity. Portfolio/Penguin, Penguin Group USA, 2014.
Marcus Aurelius, and Robin Waterfield. Meditations. Annotated edition, Basic Books, 2021.
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