FLIP FLIP (2)

FLIP FLIP (2)

Thank you for reading my blogs. In FLIP FLIP (1) I aroused your interest in reading by pointing out benefits derivable from it.

In this concluding part I’ll try to address some of the concerns raised earlier.

Personally, my reading culture grew and has remained healthy because of one guiding principle- PURPOSE. I always ask myself why and what I should spend time reading when there are other things I could be doing. I have come to answer these questions based on what I have found myself doing (which is what I have always longed to do, inspiring and motivating people like you with both the spoken and written word). Haven answered the ‘why’ I should read, I am hence directed to the ‘what’ I should read. For instance, outside books on Economics (which is my academic discipline) I read books that help me communicate better; books that will enable me enrich more lives as a speaker, teacher, coach and mentor.

Please avoid the trap of wanting to read because society expects you to and because if you don’t you’ll start feeling guilty. That is an external motivation and it is not enough to help you start nor sustain a healthy reading culture. The motivation and drive to read must come from ‘a reason why’ which is drawn from within.

Just look at yourself and see if you are satisfied with what and where you are professionally, academically, with your call and in other areas of life. If you’re not, if you want to advance and become more relevant, look at those specific areas and enrich them by reading appropriate books (not just reading for the sake of reading).

If you’re not comfortable with big books, start with small ones. Break up your reading into chapters or pages. Be disciplined and committed enough to pick the most convenient time of the day you want to read and stick to it. Here are useful thoughts from great minds:

“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.”

- A C Grayling, Financial Times (in a review of A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel)

“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.”

- Abraham Lincoln “You're the same today as you'll be in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read.”  - Charlie "Tremendous" Jones “No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”  - Confucius “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”  - Mason Cooley “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”  - Richard Steele

Please drop a line below and share this page.

Stay motivated!

Be inspired!