Although this is a topic that has been done again and again, there is benefit in reminders. Today I'll be going through the benefits that I've personally experienced from reading regularly.
Exercise for the Mind
I haven’t really been consistent in going to the gym and working out recently. As a result, I have gained over 15 pounds in the last few months. I've put on weight everywhere. It is not a good feeling.
I've noticed that along with the reduced physical stamina, i also have less energy levels throughout the day. I get tired more easily it seems. This is not helped by the fact that I really don't eat healthy either.
In order to get the full use out of your body that is possible, you have to push your body every single day. Athletes work out religiously so that they can continually get the most performance out of their bodies.
Similar to athletes who need to get the most out of their bodies, business leaders, professors, and engineers who need to get the most out of their mind need to exercise their minds. Some jobs may have a lot of built in exercising of the mind. For example in my current role its a lot of learning and analyzing on the fly. In my past role, however, it was not a lot of critical thinking. There weren't too many questions to ask every day. Great leaders are constantly working out their minds so that they can make the right decisions.
One way to work out your brain is to read. If you want evidence for this working, just take a look at two data points. I'm not going to search and find them here, but if you do a quick google search you can find both of these points.
- Average time spent watching TV by income level
- How many books the average ceo reads per year
If the people that are successful in their fields are spending so much time reading, then it should tell us that if we want to be successful we should also read.
Conversation
Someone asked a pious person once, why do people gossip? He responded by saying, "because they have nothing else to talk about."
When I heard this, it really hit me. It is so true. Oftentimes we fall into talking about other people because we lack any substance in our knowledge. The easiest thing to talk about is other people, and that’s all we have in our brain.
Reading solves this problem. People that are constantly reading constantly have new insights and new points to share with others. They can easily steer the conversation in a different direction if they don't like where it’s going by quickly referencing something they read.
Active Reading
While we're talking about reading, it is important to note the difference between active reading and passive reading. Active reading is when you're engaging the text, asking questions, making connections, understanding the implications and applications. Passive reading is reading for fun where you're just consuming the content without asking any questions. No critical thinking going on here.
While it is quite easy to think of the benefits of active reading, passive reading also has benefits. When you're watching TV, the amount of brain power required is little to none. Oftentimes it requires less brainpower than it takes to sleep. Passive reading, on the other hand, requires some brain energy. If active reading is akin to doing sprints, then passive reading is more like jogging or speed walking.
Active reading where you're actually engaging the text. Where you're asking questions and thinking critically is where the real brain workout is. This is where you start to really develop that brain muscle. Approaching books with this lens will start to allow you to come at all your problems with a similar lens. If you have a problem at work, you can critically think through it rather than just accepting it as a problem and moving on.
Building on the last point on conversation, active reading allows you to develop a framework which will enable you to have effective conversations even if you're not the one doing the talking. It will empower you to ask questions that will force the other person to think critically.
Passive reading also helps with conversation, it allows you to recap and share what you read.
Learning from Others
This was the original intent of non-fiction books. When an author sets out to write a book, they often do so with the intent to teach the reader something.
Andrew Carnegie wrote "how to win friends and influence people" after years of teaching a course on, you guessed it, how to win friends and influence people. Today people still read this book and benefit from his advice.
Although not all books will change the course of your whole life, if you actively engage with the text and try to think through your own problems and situations through the lens of what the author is saying, you’ll get a different perspective on how to handle things.