Happy Monday all, today is the day to talk about the purchase that changed me. Sometimes I believe I have a tendency to buy things in the hope that it´ll somehow magically transform my life. Finally, this time, it kind of worked! I bought a Kindle Paperwhite from Amazon and I´m reading more.
In turn, it has accelerated my personal growth a lot. Buying one yourself won´t necessarily have the same effect as it has had on me, but if you can relate to my story, it just might.
The Challenge
Over the last, maybe 5 years, I´ve been trying to get myself to read more. This has been a huge challenge for me as growing up it was a forced thing, not a desire. From a mix of school and homelife, reading is encouraged but not always in the best way; it becomes a punishment, not a reward. You no longer want to read for fun, you just want to go outside, play and escape.
Whenever you´re told you have to do something before you can “play”, what used to be an interest of yours can become a chore. The act in itself is no longer what you want to do but just have to get through.
So how do you overcome that negative association even though you know on the surface it´s fun, rewarding and profound for your life?
Stay with me for this and I´ll get right into it.
My Short Story on Reading
I began by reading short articles, like this one I´m writing right now. I tried to pick up little methods to expand my concentration period when reading. Tackling a whole book was essentially unheard of for me aside from the school ones you´re forced to read. So, slowly reading more articles online, developing the habit of just reading something other than social media, I finally got myself into reading full blown books. This didn´t stop there though and end in a “my life is now complete” scenario.
I could make my way through whole books but they would take me several months to years to get through as I got distracted by life. I also found myself sticking with short articles instead.
Reading online articles are great but I personally tend to find they are more for getting you to the place that you want to be in. Then when you´re in that place, you can do what you actually need to do. So in the case of books, this article is to help you reading more books, so that you can read the books that will truly help you in the long run.
It´s like a kickstart rather than the ultimate goal.
Make sense?
Moving on, slow and steadily I was reading more and I learnt to stay on an individual book until the end, then move onto the next. Unfortunately, this still took longer than I had liked. I needed that extra push or ease of access to information and it was a purchase I toiled with daily. Do I buy a Kindle or do I not?
My reading level was reasonable but I wasn´t in a state where buying a device to read more would necessarily help me. If I´m not reading a whole lot now, why would having more books make a difference?
The reason is habit.
Replace to Add
Your life is full right now. So is mine. We don´t pass our time necessarily efficiently but we do use it up. We have developed our habits of action and reaction to innumerable situations. What we do when we wake up, how we react to the weather, it´s all already conditioned. When we try to add a new habit or try to just do more good, it seems more difficult that it should. It´s difficult because we cannot add in the sense that we´re thinking about it.
You have to take something away first. You need to replace a bad habit, a use of a particular time, with a good habit, a new action.
This is what happened with the Kindle. I used this as a replacement for my bad habit (which I still kind of have) of always checking my phone. That need to hold an electronic device and read something, whether it be a short article, a cute puppy gif or an instant message was and is, still present. But I switched that desire to pick up my phone, to just pick up my Kindle instead.
If you think about how many times you pick up your phone, and if you read a bit of a book instead, you´ll speed through many books.
Will it work for me?
Maybe, maybe not. But life is about taking chances, always trying, and seeking to grow as an individual. If you already read a little, want to read more, check your phone a lot, recognise that you actually waste a lot of your own time, this might be worth a try.
Worst case scenario, you´ll sell the Kindle and lose a little money.
Best case scenario? Limitless.
Two Last Things
The other benefit to always picking up your Kindle instead of your phone is that it´s better for your eyes. I´m sure my eyesight has actually improved since I bought it because I´m not receiving all that radiation causing me to blink less and dry my eyes out!
If you decide to buy a Kindle, I can recommend the Paperwhite, and it does occasionally go on discount, which is what I waited for before buying.
If you can´t wait, or have the money to spare, you can find it by clicking right here.
Let me know if you do buy one and how it goes, or if you already own one, your thoughts on how it has affected your own reading.
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