Advice is very easy to give to others but quite tough to implement in one's own life.
As a bookstore owner and a lover of books, I very often dish out advice to others with a view to encouraging them to give time to read good books. In 2013, I read a blog post on Lifelong Learning by Jen Harris and learnt that:
- If you read just one book per month for 12 straight months, you will be in the top 25 percentile of all intellectuals in the world!
- If you read five books on one subject, you are one of the world’s foremost leading authorities on that subject!
- If you read just 15 minutes a day — every day, for one year — you can complete 20 books!
Based on this discovery, on Hidden Treasures Bookstore's Facebook page, we invited our fans to join our 15 Minutes A Day Reading Challenge. Here's how the challenge worked. Participants were to:
1. Choose a book to start with and get the book;
2. Choose a specific time in the day when they'll read the book EVERY day for 15 minutes, e.g. 6.00 - 6.15pm;
3. Start reading the book every day at the scheduled time;
4. When they finished reading the first book, take a second book and repeat the cycle;
5. Share their experiences (if they like) with us on our Facebook page as they go on this journey;
6. Invite their friends to do the same.
Since I resumed blogging about my experience reading books, I have done some self assessment and found that I have not taken my own advice. I haven't put in my daily schedule time for reading as advised in the 15 Minutes A Day Reading Challenge. Invariably, my desire to read regularly is not realised as other activities overwhelm any efforts I make to fulfil that desire.
The time has come for me to take my own advice. I really do want to share my experience about reading books. To do that I have to read books on a regular basis. So I have come to the place of a new commitment. I commit from August 1, 2014 to take the 15 Minutes A Day Reading Challenge.
I invite you to join me in this challenge. Let me know in the comment box, if you're accepting my invitation.
Joining you in the challenge to read a book or a story each day, whether online or in hard copy :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Modokpe. I'm looking forward to hearing your experience.
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