In my last post we discussed how reading and writing are highly intuitive and creative activities, and why they are essential skills for us in the modern world.
How has your reading been going on? Did you enjoy this new activity? Did you encounter any challenges?
For me, the biggest “limiting belief” I had was the question of time. My days are usually already so much packed with activities, so how could I possibly make time for reading?
I used two parallel tactics:
1) I planned one daily “big reading time slots”, but I also
2) filled all the little “boring moments of life” with reading.
1. Since I travel quite a bit, I took my book on the train or the plane, which made for at least one hour of reading. If I wasn’t travelling, I planned my reading time in advance (usually one hour) and wrote it down in my agenda as a fixed appointment. It usually happened around breakfast or lunch time. I even surprised myself with some evening reading. I thought this would never happen, as I am usually not very productive after dinner time. And it became clear that this lack of evening productivity and creativity came from the fact that I was constantly connected, writing e-mails, reading stuff on social media, and typing messages on my phone. I realised I was actually reading quite a bit already: one article here, one blog post there (and then, why not, let’s watch a cat video!), but neither did it fulfill nor relax me. So after dinner, I decided, at least for a while, to trade some of that for an hour of offline reading. My evenings got somehow longer and more relaxed.
2. But what surprised and impressed me the most, is when I started pulling out my book (instead of my phone!) in those little boring moments of life. Most of our modern lifestyles involve a lot of “waiting”, at the airport, the train station, the bus stop, the doctor’s, or even at the café waiting for a friend or colleague. In these moments, I would mainly pull out my phone and browse through the feeds of the various social media platforms I use. So, I decided to leave my phone in my purse and take out my book instead. Once I was standing in the supermarket waiting line, reading my book, and a man behind me said “You must be very intelligent, apart from having such a great smile!” 🙂
We all tend to forget how beneficial reading and writing actually are. From reading, we acquire knowledge. We are inspired. We learn from other people’s experiences, from history, from the past. We stimulate our imagination and allow the inflow of creative energy. When writing, we can keep in touch with our loved ones. Keeping a diary for example is a nice tool to get rid of the daily little worries, but also for dealing with bigger fears. Laying them down on paper is often a truly liberating process. Writing the words “I’m pissed!” or “I’m scared!” is often all you need in order to move on with your day.
I started writing a diary from an early age on and have done so until I was in my early twenties. And before computers and e-mail got into my life, I used to write letters to family members and friends, and most interestingly, also to unknown people. There was a point in my teens when I exchanged letters with up to 42 penpals from all over the world. I would put letters in the mail on a daily basis. And the most beautiful moment of the day was when I went down to the mailbox and discovered a pack of colourful envelopes from Switzerland, Togo or Canada.
Maybe I stopped writing because I thought this is what little girls with too much fantasy do, but not grown-up adults. Maybe I stopped writing with the typical excuse of “I have no time for this”, like we have no times to do sports, or to eat healthy, or to meditate. Over the course of the years, I started studying the life habits of the people that truly inspired me. A lot of them were actually writers such as playwrights, novelists, journalists and successful bloggers. But many of the highly creative minds who inspired me also used writing as a tool, even though the written piece was not their final product, but rather one step in the process.
Now that we’ve experienced reading and have gain many benefits from it already, I would like us to start writing again. Therefore, my second challenge will consist of writing three pages a day for the next year.
Yes, I know what’s going through your mind. It seems like a lot, right? Actually, if you add up all the text messages you send in a day, you will realize it’s not that much!
But here are a few tips on how to do it:
- I propose you go for the traditional pen and paper. This will give you a break from your computer screen and I am sure you much need it. Choose a nice booklet or diary (if you don’t have one, it’s a nice opportunity to treat yourself!) and pick your favourite pen.
- Do your writing first thing in the morning. Yes, that’s right. You should not write at the end of the day, but rather at the beginning. This means that you need to plan writing time in advance, on the evening before going to bed. If you need half an hour to write three pages, then you should make sure to get up a bit earlier than usual in order to do your writing before starting your other activities.
- Moreover, make sure that this writing stays strictly personal. Don’t show it to anyone. Actually, you should not even go back yourself and read what you’ve written. Just let it be.
- This method of morning pages is used by tons of highly creative people. The goal is to liberate yourself from negative thought and daily worries, making space for new ideas and unblocking the mind.
So, are you ready for this one year reading and writing challenge? You might want to ask why we should be doing this for one year precisely.
Well, I think that if we do this for the next year, chances are it will become part of our life hygiene for a long time to go. It will become a life habit – one of our most practical, inspiring and creative habits! Think about it: if you take up these two challenges, it will mean that in a year from now, you will have read more than 50 books and wrote more than 1000 pages!
