Reading With Purpose

I was working with my coach last week on putting together a reading plan. I love to read and learn new things and I am constantly struggling to find more time to read. So, I decided I needed a plan to become more intentional. Hey, that's sound like what I try to get my clients to do. Imagine that.

There were a couple of interesting takeaways for me from that coaching session that I thought I would pass along to you.

First, my coach asked me what my motivations were for reading. An obvious one for me is my love of learning. But, what else came out of that interchange was very interesting to me. Here are some of my other motivations, ones I hadn't thought of before:

1) The more I read, the better resource I will be for my clients.
2) If I am consistently reading I will be more informed of current events and have a more consistent flow of new ideas and insights. This will help me come to the dinner table with some interesting things to talk about. I have been looking for ways to get better at initiating meaningful conversation around the table.
3) My wife loves to read and reads about ten times faster than I do. She is also great at staying abreast of world events and things going on in the culture. We both really enjoying talking with one another. The more I read the better prepared I will be to have interesting things for us to talk about together. We never lack things to talk about, but the more well-read I am the better partner I will be in those interactions.
4) I love to do public speaking. One of my weaknesses in this area is story-telling and the use of analogies. I have a hard time coming up with them. The more I read, the more stories and analogies I will be exposed to, so I will have a larger inventory to draw from.

As I keep these all in view, I think I will be much more motivated to follow through on my plan because I am more aware of all the benefits I stand to gain.

The second insight that came from my coaching appointment was that I decided to break up my reading material into categories. I am a slow reader by nature. However, because I read slow and have a good memory, I tend to remember most of what I read. As we discussed this concept further I became aware that there are certain books/articles that I read just for fun, and am not interested in the full content. These are the kinds of things I could just skim and be satisfied. So, I have created two different categories:

1) Stuff I want to consume, learn & apply
2) Stuff I wasnt to skim and glean from

I still have more work to do, but this progress and insight has already been helpful.

What motivates you to read? How will those motivations affect your reading habits? Do you have different ways you could categorize your reading to help you use your time and energy more efficiently?

Click here to sign up for my free monthly newsletter. I would be honored to be added to your reading list. And remember, readers are leaders and leaders are readers.

Seize the day!

http://www.joedenner.blogspot.com/
http://www.alliantleadership.com/