After numerous false starts, I found and made more time to read – and that’s been amazing.
Photo by Perfecto Capucine on Unsplash
As a child, I loved to read.
I think it was all the reading that I did as a kid that led me to become a writer. Ideas like – hey, I can do that, too – made me desire to write my own stories.
When I was 9, I wrote my first 50-page, illustrated sci-fi novel. Wildfire, apart from mentions here on this blog, will never see the light of day. But from a 9-year-old kid with an overactive imagination, it’s pretty awesome.
As I got older, I found it increasingly difficult to make time to read. For many years, I found myself reading far less than I preferred to.
After entering the workforce and finding various things to do in the evenings and the weekends after work, making time to read became increasingly challenging.
Overall, my focus tended towards making time to read at night. Nothing like reading before bed to calm down, relax, and reset at the end of the day.
Trouble is, when you have dates, fencing practices, game nights, and online and in-person conversations in the evening, making time to read can become untenable.
I’d read a night or two and then not. I found it hard to get through books with any consistency.
Recognizing this – and multiple attempts that failed to make it a habit – rather than give up on establishing a reading habit, I changed my approach.
Start a new habit with a new approach
If reading at night regularly wasn’t working – and I made multiple attempts at this – I needed a new approach.
I desired to make a habit of reading. I’ve always felt it deserved ample time and attention. It’s important enough to me that I made multiple attempts to do more.
A new thought came to me. If reading at night wasn’t working – why not read first thing in the morning?
I stopped getting up with an alarm several years ago. Naturally, I tend to wake at or near sunrise, generally around 6-6:30 am. Additionally, since my job has either been work from home or didn’t require me to be on site before 9 am. So, there was no reason not to get up and read.
Thus, I started a new practice.
My morning routine looks like this:
Get out of bed
Use the bathroom
Feed the cats (unless my wife has beat me to it)
Start the coffee (unless she beat me to that, too)
Sit on the couch in the living room
Read 1-2 chapters of fiction and 1-2 chapters of nonfiction (30-60 minutes)
Proceed to other daily activities
This 30–60-minute habit allowed me to read about 50 books in 2022. This practice has become my daily routine, and I look forward to it – even on weekends.
Creating this time to read has been an amazing experience.
Further, this is an incredible way to start my day. The stories of sci-fi, fantasy, and more from the fiction that I read – as well as the information and inspiration from the nonfiction – inspire my day.
I no longer start my day online, checking email, scrolling social media, playing with my iPhone, watching TV, or some other distraction. It’s just me and the words and imagination from the author I’m reading.
It feels as if my day begins slower, more naturally, and more intentionally.
I feel as though not only do I get in more reading time – and consume a lot more books – I also make a deeper connection with the author, characters, stories, and other information they provide.
My attention is wholly on my reading. And I love the feeling of sitting with my solitary purpose and consuming information.
It feels very much like this is an empowering practice. And I believe that it is.
Why? Because I am making time for myself. This is not an act of selfishness – but one of self-care.
You need to exercise the mind just as much as the body and soul. Reading is exactly that. And it doesn’t matter if you read fiction and/or nonfiction. There is validity in the practice of active reading in and of itself.
Because of my abiding love to read, I am doing something good for myself that’s equal to eating mindfully and exercising. It all goes into improved health, wellness, and wellbeing.
When I read more my writing improves more
Whether I read fiction or nonfiction, I find that just like more writing, more reading causes me to improve my work.
How? Because when I read, I see new perspectives on how other authors approach their work. It doesn’t much matter what genre it is. I see things that can help make me a better writer.
I also believe that by reading more, I’m lending more support to the craft overall. More readers for other authors can certainly lead to more readers for me.
When I read, I learn. Admittedly, sometimes I learn what NOT to do – but that’s still learning. Of course, reading feeds into my love of learning, too.
Just like what I write – well-written fictional characters get in my head. I want to know how their untenable situation could possibly work out – or if it won’t. Will they succeed? Fail? Take half the galaxy out in a blaze of glory when and if they fail?
How other authors approach conscious reality creation, mindfulness, positivity, and other self-helpish topics gives me ideas for how to present mine to you. What’s more, I learn new things that I can share on my ongoing journey.
Finding and/or making time to read has been invaluable to me. If you’re also a reader and have struggled to put together time for reading – feel free to try my morning reading routine (or your own based on mine that I’ve shared here).
Happy reading. And thank you for reading this.
How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?
Please take a moment to check out the collection of my published works, which can be found here.
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