It is that time of year again – New Year resolutions are made, only to be broken within a few days. That is because we often set unrealistic goals for ourselves and give up because it is too ambitious, or seems difficult to achieve.
Take reading for instance. Almost nobody will say that reading is not a useful habit — we encourage it in others, but may not follow it ourselves.
The benefits are obvious: knowledge, cultural awareness, communication skills and just sheer joy of imagining stories.
Yet, we are reluctant to pick up a book. Magazines are almost invisible now and the only hard print we see around are a few newspapers in offices. Bookstores have closed and libraries are less frequented, even in communities where they were once valued. Yet, most of us love to be surrounded by books. Instagram is a clear indication of this trend: there are booktoks, online book clubs, even influencers taking 30 seconds to talk about a recent book or a current trend.
Researchers have talked about this trend as an aesthetic: books forming a background that shows old world charm and a vision of intellect.
This may not be necessarily a limitation because it still showcases a world that sees books and reading, as an aspirational lifestyle. We still yearn to be associated with a library full of beautifully bound stacked books, complete with the mandatory props of yellow lights, a comfortable arm chair and the ubiquitous coffee alongside.
Reading is still valued, even if it is not actually done in the same spirit. That is itself a positive. All that remains is to bring back the trend, not as a fashion accessory but as a real habit that positively adds to the development of a human being.
The best way to follow any resolution is to set realistic targets. Promising to read a masterpiece in a weekend is not really possible, but breaking it up in bits definitely is.
The Time magazine this year promoted a ‘Read 25 in ‘25’ suggestion which basically meant that a realistic target of reading for 25 minutes in a day would help to establish a habit that could be built on later.
This is an interesting idea because it shows how realistic a goal can be when framed in bite sizes: “It’s measurable. It’s manageable; 25 minutes of reading is realistic, even for a busy person. And over the course of a year, we can read a lot of books in our 9,125 minutes — that’s more than 152 hours of reading time,” says Gretchen Rubin in her Times article on making reading a daily habit.
There are many ways in which we can pack 25 minutes of reading. Starting with audio books while driving could be a good start to generate interest. Using social media to get some recommendations based on one’s taste is a good way to feel belonging to a reading community. So does signing up to an online reading group that keeps the motivation going.
Whatever strategy we choose, these small steps can become a lifelong habit.
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