Reading Time: 4 minutes

The difference between where you are today and where you’ll be five years from now will be found in the quality of books you’ve read.
Jim Rohn

This year, one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to read more. Now reading “more” was a low bar, as it has probably been 10 years since I read a book on my own initiative.

I started with business books – ones that I was assigned in college but ultimately never read. Unlike most years, this year I made a resolution that I actually stayed committed to.

Having trouble staying motivated? Click below for a quick aside into the psychology behind motivation.

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Based on Expectancy Theory, there are three main factors behind motivation. Expectancy theory is a great model to pinpoint exactly why you are struggling to stay motivated on a certain task.

The Factors:

Expectancy: Belief that if you increase your effort, your performance will improve.
Instrumentality: Belief that if you improve your performance, you will achieve the outcome.
Valence: Value you place on the outcome.

As you can see, each factor builds upon the last to demonstrate the connection between your effort and the ultimate outcome. In order to be motivated, each of these factors must be connected in your mind.

Example: To illustrate this concept, let’s break down my motivation to read, which has been based on the idea that reading will help me in my professional career.

Expectancy: If I try to read, I will be able to finish a book.
Instrumentality: If I finish more books, I will have a better career.
Valence: I value having a better career.

Historically, the biggest hurdle for me has been the expectancy factor: if I read, I will be able to finish a book. Yes, while I am literally capable of reading a book, I never know if tomorrow I’ll feel motivated to continue reading. As humans, we are routine-driven (see below) and it’s very common to not have faith in ourselves to finish a long task.

Why You Should Read

There are two main reasons why I think you should be reading.

Reading is the first step toward developing a point of view. In order to support your perspective, you need to actually be learning more about the world.
- I liken reading to building a concentrated expertise. In our everyday lives, we learn snippets of things across a broad array of topics (e.g. what you heard on the radio, what current event your friend mentioned). Sitting down and reading a book forces you to spend and exert a significant amount of time and energy on one topic and build a concentrated expertise in it.
Reading helps you learn and grow as a person. I’m a big believer in the Jim Rohn quote at the top of this post. It’s obviously hyperbole, but I still place a lot of value in the notion that reading changes you for the better.

How to Get Started

If you’re at all interested in getting back into reading, here is my advice: do it poorly (at first).

As human beings, we are big into routines. We find comfort in the things that stay the same (that same morning cup of coffee or that same time of day to go to the gym) and find conflict in the things that change (graduating from school or entering a new job).

In order to get into the habit of reading, you need to try to make it into a routine. For me, that means on the days that I’m not feeling like reading, I’m going to do a terrible job and read for five minutes. On the days that I am feeling like reading, I’ll go ahead and read a chapter or two. Either way, this routine pushes me and instills a sense of self-belief that I will be able to finish a longer task.

In conclusion, start slow. Don’t try to commit too much of your time or energy upfront or you’ll just get burned out (aka me with running). You’re playing the long game.

TLDR:

Read poorly (at first)
Build a routine
Learn, get better, and reap the rewards.

Parting Thoughts

As part of this blog, I want to share with you what I have been reading this year and the key insights from the books that I have read. While most of them so far have been business books, they have helped me build skills far beyond the scope of business.

Curious to see what I’ve been reading? Click below to find out.

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