Day 2: How a reading goal both helps and destroys your reading habit

 I started looking at my last years resolutions (2021). As expected, I didn't finish many. 

But surprisingly, I did manage to move in the right direction for almost all. Even if I lack a direction, I have a lot more clarity now than I had before on all of them.

One of key successes from last year was Reading Books. I started the year with a very ambitious target of 52 books. For the first three months, I was able to match the goal of a book a week. Then came COVID, lethargy and some work pressure. Even then, I was confident I would catch up. I kept reading, trying to meet the goal. 

Then I realized, the real reason I set out to put this target was to get in a habit of reading. By forcing myself to catch up to a "made-up" goal on no. of books read, I was reading faster than I was happy with. I was not having any time to breath between books. In summary, I was not enjoying the process of reading. I immediately dialed down my reading goal to half (24 books).

It was, as if, a huge load had been lifted off my shoulders. In the last 4 months after reducing my goal, I read so much more - daily - than I had before while trying to judge myself about not meeting a goal. I didn't finish a lot of books, merely started and read few chapters in each of them. But, I was happy. I started looking forward to new books, new concepts to read and think about.

In the end, I had achieved what I started for the year. I was in love with books again.