500 Day Reading Goal: Killing it Softly
Today marks 500 consecutive days of reading. This began on January 10th 2023 with the simple goal to read more days in a week than I didn’t. It’s grown immeasurably from there to something as simple as washing my face and brushing my teeth in the A.M. This was a goal I never envisioned reaching let alone setting. Today, I reflect on this meaningful milestone.
Drewskii | May 23, 2024
Whew!
500 days of reading and I am exhausted!
Actually, I’m far from exhausted. It only feels like 500 days when I look at the statistics and reflect.
As humans, we gloss over the days. We examine it on the bigger spectrum of weeks, months, and years. Don’t believe me? Okay.
What day are we currently in? You can say it’s May 23rd of 2024 (or whatever date you read this) but that’s not what I’m asking. What day is it out of 365?
The smart people would say “we are almost halfway through the year, so 30 times 5 would put us at 150, give or take a couple days because February is short…” Alright I’ll help you out. As of May 23rd we sit at day 143.
The end of June would put us at 181 days, just shy of halfway to 365.
It’s interesting to contemplate but we aren’t wired this way. Setting a reading goal has me thinking about life more on a day by day basis rather than the macro perspective we’ve been conditioned to.
Reading Like There’s No Tomorrow
Reading has grown to be a greater component in my daily life since I wrote a manifesto in acting school. While doing the manifesto, I did research in the area of reading and I was astonished by the results.
People aren’t reading anymore. Reading and comprehension scores are low and our youth is struggling. Parents who don’t read to children, those children most likely won’t be readers.
I did some interesting math the other day. There are 24 hours in a day. That shakes down to 1,440 minutes.
I encourage people to read for 15 minutes a day. Just 15 minutes of reading a day is an hour and 45 minutes per week. Multiply that by 4 and you get 7 hours per month.
7 hours of month for reading isn’t anything outrageous when you think about it, but so many people say they just don’t have the time to read. I won’t accept that as an excuse anymore.
You give at least 33% of your day to your career.
You give 33% of your day to sleep (supposed to).
You have 34% of your day left for you.
In total, 15 minutes accounts for roughly 1% of your day. One hour accounts for roughly 4%.
Can you commit 1% of your day to reading?
What I’ve Learned
Over the course of my life, I’ve always taken away small gems from all places that I feel help me in my life. At the beginning of the year, I watched a masterclass with Walter Mosley discussing books and writing. Mr. Mosley stated that if you want to be a writer, you must write everyday. He specifically said he aims to write 2,500 words per day.
If you have yet to watch Mr. Mosley’s masterclass it was one of my favorites so far this year. It gave me the drive to begin to write out my thoughts. To search my imagination and create characters, situations, settings and put them on a page. To search my memory bank for imagery and creat it to leap off the page to the reader. I watched this masterclass in order to educate myself.
I’ve learned that reading helps power the mind. I see something written on a page and I think how I would create that in my own words. I see a funny euphemism and think what funny euphemism could I concoct to fit in a space. I read about characters and I wonder what the people in my life would say as characters if I inserted them onto a page.
I’ve learned that humans are very interesting people. The famous people that you love and adore right now were nothing close to that throughout their life. They’ve had their own share of the human experience. They’ve had ups and downs. Highs and lows. Celebration and heartbreak. Love and pain.
I’ve learned that reading is contagious. Fellow bookworms want to ask what book you are reading and how is it so far. You can motivate people to begin reading without knowing your true power. It’s no secret if every time a person sees you with a book, to hypothesize that you enjoy reading. When they are wondering what’s a good book to read, they might come and ask you first. Which is an ingratiating feeling.
Author Malcolm Gladwell (one of my favorite authors) highlighted a term he refers to as the 10,000 hour rule. Those who are experts in something have put concerted effort and time into their craft. He equates that amount to around 10,000 hours. Though there have been many people to dispel this notion, I understand what Mr. Gladwell was communicating.
Malcolm Gladwell is saying that it takes an absorbent amount of time to be an expert at something. Are there people who are just geniuses and can do great things? Yes. But for many of us, we must work work work (insert Rhianna song) at something and by working we are stringing together hours of effort and experience in this field.
Though I read because I’m an avid reader, I’m also reading to learn to write better. I’m writing blogs in order to formulate my thoughts and write clearly and concisely. I want to write a book one day. Whether fiction or non fiction is still unclear but I know I want to. What better way to do this than to know how books are constructed? A writing style that I like and is effective for me.
I read to educate myself. To learn. To be exposed to new worlds. Experience is our best teacher. It doesn’t have to be YOUR experience that teaches you though. You can be taught by experiences of others. Especially those who are living a life in a career or area you wish to be in one day.
That’s the beauty of it.
I read to escape.
I read to return as well.
Readers Lead, Leaders Read
I said earlier that in order to become an expert in something, one must study or research feverishly. It just so happens that reading is synonymous with learning.
The most accomplished people have a knack for reading. Either innately or they develop such a quality.
I know what you’re going to say, “I follow such and such and they never talk about reading books.” Don’t try to find the outlier here, but what I want to stress are those that end up in powerful positions are those that are educated or knowledgeable about the world. This applies to their business or area of expertise.
It wasn’t until I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X that I stumbled upon his upbringing and well traveled past. Through that journey, I also discovered that he hadn’t begun to devour books until he went to jail and spent time in the library. That’s when he became educated in the real of government, policies, and life. By opening books.
Malcolm X became a leader through reading.
I want to be a leader of men & young men. I must continue to fill my brain with all the knowledge I can to point them in the right direction. To give them literary material to arm themselves with. Examples & experiences that show them what to do and what not to do.
This isn’t something new. I’ve known I’ve wanted to have a positive impact on others because I had so many great influences on my life. Men saw something in me. Maybe it was potential. Maybe they saw something they could mold and influence. One thing I learned about these select men were that they were readers as well. Educators if you will.
Whether you want to be a leader or a reader, there is correlation between the two. That correlation is reading.
Currently Reading
Working between two different reads has become my forte.
I have a physical book that I’m reading as well as an ebook through the kindle app. Reading through the app helps me to track my reading and progress. There are times I open a book and a few days might’ve gone by. I don’t trust myself enough to know which days I read. Therefore, I gave the task to technology.
A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston is my current ebook read. I’m 80% (218/279) through it and thoroughly enjoying it. Bryan Cranston is an actor who has been working since his mid 20’s. Holding prominent roles in both film and television since the early 2000’s.
After graduating from acting school last year, I made it my business to dig more into actors and their background. I’ve always liked biographies/autobiographies/ memoirs because they give you a look into a person’s life. This magnifies what they went through to become who they are. It gives context and proof of their journey.
Mr. Cranston was the leading actor in one of my favorite tv shows Breaking Bad. I never saw him in a role such as this and it was absolutely riveting the work he produced.
I heard stories on his length of time in Hollywood before his big breakthrough. This book provides some context on that but it’s been a pleasant read to digest and reflect on his journey.
I swear I lived another full life during the jazz era for how much I thoroughly enjoy it. I definitely have an old soul.
Saxophone Colossus is a behemoth of a book that caught my eye last year when at the book store. I’m 180 pages through this nearly 800 page dictionary. This book combs through his life and his musical career. Sonny Rollins is currently 93 years young so I’m sure there is much to discuss.
I wanted to give myself time to enjoy it and steadily pace through it. I get wrapped up in wanting to finish a book so I can mark it off my list and give a review of it. What’s important is to continue to read about people and subjects that interest and educate you.
There’s no point in reading a book, reaching the end, and feeling like you’ve wasted hours on it.
There’s so much cool & crazy stuff happening in this book. Hearing the legendary jazz musicians that played in the neighborhood clubs and lived nearby, brings a smile to my face. Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, Art Blakley, and Charlie Parker to name a few. Hearing about the prevalent heroine use during this time in the world is astonishing to also. Sonny battled with addiction and often pawned his and others instruments in order to feed his habit. He was very aware of who he was at the time and the hold that addiction can have on you.
But he transformed jazz and was a big reason for the genre and bebop as we know it.
THANK YOU
A huge thank you to ALL who have supported me on this quest to further my reach through reading. Though this process is for me, I always told myself it’s bigger than me. I must bring others along as well.
When you like a post, comment, and share I can see that the work isn’t going unnoticed.
I appreciate that.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to read about my 500 days of consecutive reading.
STAY HEALTHY
DREWSKII
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