” One book a day and you will be a huge success “
” The one common habit of all successful people – READING “
Yes, successful people read, they read a lot. But the new trend is forcing us into reading more at speeds unimaginable. Reading needs a transformation — let’s call it Speed Reading.
You will find tons of articles and books offering the perfect solution to your snail like reading habits and make you the fastest reader on this planet. You could read one book every day, and guess the outcome – SUCCESS!
Do you know where to begin ? What genre do you prefer ? Just Google the ” Top 100 books ” and enter the race to determine who has read the maximum books this year ? Reading today has become a competitive sport, and what used to be a pleasurable activity, now seems like a chore. I’m not against speed reading, it’s great for your to-do lists or at the grocery store.
But here’s why it’s not your shortcut to success —
PURPOSE
What is your purpose behind reading that classic novel ? Are you just trying to impress somebody at a party or do you simply wish to lose yourself in the beautiful fantasy depicted in the novel ?
I’ll be honest, I haven’t read as many books as I’d like to read. There have been times when I was unable to find a single book to read even when I was surrounded by thousands at my public library. But whenever I read something, it wasn’t to impress someone, it was to enjoy its content.
Whether it was fiction or a biography, I wished to make this time of reading a time to be deeply involved. I would pause several times to casually imagine the picture painted through simple words. If I am reading an inspiring biography, I imagined myself overcoming every hurdle and attaining new heights. I did not like reading a few books that everybody was talking about, and enjoyed some that were disliked. I was reading for myself.
The moment when you recreate a scene from the book while you are stuck in traffic, or when the book was so engaging that it cancelled out the noise of the doorbell, leaving your best friend waiting at the door. Reading binds our senses, making it satisfying and therefore it stays with us forever.
Haven’t we all felt this ? The one common thing among all readers on this planet is that we all imagine. This imagination is often the only purpose, because it promises to drive us away to another world, the past or the future, in turn establishing some of the most pleasurable moments through reading.
Can speed reading do the same ?
Can you possibly halt and absorb the beauty when you are assigned a deadline to finish your book by midnight ?
Aren’t you tracking enough of your activities every day, from your work deadlines to the number of footsteps you take ?
Picture yourself enjoying a good swim, but you only have seven and a half minutes to enjoy the cool water. How many times are you going to look at the time ?
THE MYTH
You are inspired by the habits of successful people like Elon Musk or Bill Gates, and think that reading one book a day will make you super smart to put you on the Forbes list for best innovators of our time.
Yes, successful people are well-read, but they do not simply read one book a day without action. Your knowledge is valuable only when you apply it, and can be worthless if you are simply speed reading your way through tons of books without absorbing the content. Books promise a broader perspective and if you simply skim through the material, you are likely to forget everything you read.
Remember studying through an entire night before your exam, and recollect nothing a week later ?
Reading is effective when it provokes your thoughts as opposed to aimlessly reading to reach the finish line.
The consequences of reading cannot be quantified by the number of pages or books you read in a single day. There is no number that can be assigned to broadening our minds, to placing ourselves in a different time and place or to connecting with the initial struggles of a now famous personality.
IN CONCLUSION …
Read all you want, and if you can read one book a day, that’s fantastic! But don’t compete with fellow readers in order to get the highest number at the end of the year.
Savor every book you read.
Be mindful while you read and let it enrich you as it is intended.
Carpe Diem !
Related Links:
Seeking My Utopia 
Reading is a journey what helps you to learn and grow at the same time . There is no shortcut to it because it’s a long way to reach to a success of accomplishing not a book but a long elevated path to a magical world for which we don’t have to bare expenses but can nurture it’s beauty just with those magical words . Book is your best friend always by your side to help you and be dere with you in all the ways and means of life 😊
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Great article. I definitely agree with the idea, but I have to say that I wished this article would go in a slightly different direction. There are so many articles that stand for the importance of reading, which I agree with, so I kind of hoped that this article would present an opposing opinion.
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Thanks for reading.
I am not opposed to reading like you mentioned, but wanted to throw some light on a new trend of making reading a shortcut to success. There’s been too much talk about speed reading in the last few years and how it can change your life, which has led to some misinterpretations with it’s correlation to success.
Appreciate your feedback 😊
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This is so insightful It’s no longer about the speed bt the knowledge gained. Thanks for sharing.
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