‘Reading is to the
mind what exercise is to the body’ – Richard Steele. Successful people, either in academics or business are voracious
readers and writers. Though they
spend a lot of time strategizing on how to get things done or working so hard
to achieve their goals, however, they don’t leave reading out of it.
Readers are leaders. Most coup plotters
read before they do. A beautiful example of this is Thomas Sankara, who had to acquire education, and as well do
personal studies just to develop strategies on how to oust a government and
bring freedom to his people. Professors with their level of knowledge still
read every day. In fact, great people can’t do without reading.
According to Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Readers may be divided into four classes:
1. Sponges, who absorb all they read
and return it nearly in the same state, only a little dirtied.
2. Sand-glasses, who retain nothing,
and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time.
3. Strain-bags, who retain merely
the dregs of what they read, and return it nearly in the same state, only a
little dirtied.
4. Mogul diamonds, equally rare and
valuable, who profit by what they read, and reflecting, refracting, and
enlarging upon it enable others to profit by it also.
Therefore, we all have different reasons why we read and our
rate of assimilation is quite different, however, the best point is to acquire
knowledge.
Quickly, we would go through the 6 importance of reading and
why it is necessary you do it every day;
#1 Reading improves your brain
‘A good reader has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and
some artistic sense’ – Vladimir Nabokov. One of the best ways to increase the sharpness
of the brain is reading. Reading ensures your brain is always busy. Even when
you stopped reading, your brain has the assignment of thinking and meditating about
what you just read. When you read, youare directly increasing the contents in your brain. You are adding more knowledgeto yourself. You know more than you used to know and you are getting betterthan what you used to be. When you are at a discussion, you won’t be lost
and you will always have an idea. It makes you proud and makes you smarter.
Don’t underestimate the power of reading in making you whatever you want to
become in life.
#2 Reading improves Critical
Thinking
‘I
love to lose myself in other men’s minds. When I am not walking, I am reading;
I cannot sit and think. Books think for me’ – Charles Lamb. You heard that right; Reading
increases your ability to think outside the box. Through reading, you are
exposed to different level of experiences; I mean live experiences from those
that have passed similar and different stages of your life. Reading helps you
to think outside the box almost every time because of your level of experience.
Even in your business and academics, you look at different ways of getting
things done and achieving a lot of things. Don’t
be surprised, the more you read, the more exposed you are, and the more you can
make right decisions.
#3 Reading motivates you
‘Reading,
to me, is simply the expansion of one’s mind to include some people whom you
just didn’t get to meet before’
– Ntozake Shange. Life is easier when
you live based on the experiences of others and not yourself. It is
difficult when a man has to learn from his own mistake when you could learn
from other people’s mistakes. Reading opens you to the experience of others.
Aside fictional books, most books are written from experiences especially
historical books. There is nothing new under the sun and there is nothing new
you are passing through; more than a million people have passed that stage.
Reading will help you to know how they rigged their way through the problems.
You tend to learn from them.
See also:
They ginger you to even achieve better than they
did. You see how they started very bad, poor family, financial constraints and
the likes, yet, they still made it. This blog even wrote on the successful business men and
personalities you can learn from; such as Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, Jack Ma, Ben Carson, Steve Jobs, Les Brown and many
more. You can find these articles in here.
They will help you, guide you and motivate you and you will finally see reasons
why you have to achieve in life despite your problems.
#4 Reading improves your imagination
The
reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past
centuries – René
Descartes. You must have read some books and you
are washed off your feet. Probably the book was fictional,
interestingly-written and you imagine how somebody could have come up with
such. An example of this is this article I saw Something. You start to imagine if somebody like you wrote something of
such, yes, somebody like you did. However, the person would have read a lot of
books before he could also be able to write such.
Reading helps you to think and imagine like extraordinary beings.
You will always think of impossible things. Reading increases your ability to
achieve a lot of things. Even in making decisions, you find it very easy just
because you have seen such experiences in the books you have read. Therefore,
reading helps you to imagine a lot of things. A man who reads, who thinks, or who calculates, belongs to the species
and not to the sex; in his better moments, he even escapes being human – Marguerite Yourcenar.
#5 Reading improves your creativity
One of the characteristics of
intelligent people is that they read a lot. You start to wonder why some people are more creative than
you are. They think so weird that you don’t just expect what came out from
their mouth. Probably you never even thought about what they said. Actually, reading has exposed and
enlightened them to different stages and forms of life. They can venture
into whatever they delight in, all it takes them is to get a book in line with
that direction, read it and get the idea on how to achieve what is on their
mind. Read so that you can be creative.
See also:
Reading
is the best form of self-development. You can develop yourself by staying
hours or days in your own room alone and reading. By the time you are out, you will be refreshed with new ideas. You
become a different person whole level of reasoning is higher than what it used
to be.
#6 Reading reduces Stress
If you want to ease the pressure in your head or you want to
unwind time solitarily, then get a book to read. We have interesting books,
science fiction books, discoveries, historical books, war books, motivational
books and many more. Reading something that will open your eyes to another side
of life is good enough to relieve you of stress. One of the books I recommend
for you to read is 48 Laws of Power.
So many that have read it would not even want you to read it if you have never
read it, because that is there source of inspiration when it comes to game of
power and business.
Hardly would you even see a successful business man that
has not read it. Politicians delight so much in the book. Aside reading the
book to learn history or theatrics involved in power, it would also make you
feel relaxed and relieved. Remember, ‘If a book is worth reading, then it is
worth buying’ – John Ruskin.
Thank you for following this
article to the end. We hope you make use of it, digest it, share it and imbibe
the art and spirit of learning. 'Read in order to live' - Gustave Flaubert
We recommend our Motivational Library for you; you can check up the books there and you can also download our motivational audios.
We recommend our Motivational Library for you; you can check up the books there and you can also download our motivational audios.
Remember, ‘If you want to hide a thing from an
African, keep it in a book’. Don’t let that be your case.
orcid.org/0000-0002-7574-6582
4 Comments
Well, I can not but agree with you on this one. Nice article 👍
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DeleteTrue, thanks
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