One Page at a Time

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I just finished reading my 5th book of the year, and I am absolutely friggin’ ELATED with myself.

Do you know what this means? It means I’m on track to reach my goal of reading 12 books this year — one for every month of the year! *self high-five*

Now, this might not seem like a huge deal to anybody reading this, but it is to me. I used to be a massive reader. I devoured books when I was younger. I worked my way through the entire fiction section of our public library. I carted books around with me across countries… and continents. On a backpacking trip through Europe, I once dragged my best friend all over Athens, Greece the weekend the final Harry Potter book was released to find somewhere that sold an English copy… and then proceeded to read the entire thing on a boat dock while waiting for a midnight ferry to our next destination…#sorrymeg, I admit that was intense.

I inherited my love of reading from my parents and brother, who were also avid readers. We once took a family photo on our front deck with every book we could find in the house — absolutely epic. When my mom was younger, she used to hide her bedside lamp under the covers so she could read well past her bedtime. My Dad loved reading so much, he eventually decided to work on a novel of his own, and began writing short stories in his later years. My brother also inevitably has a new book or series on-the-go at any given time.

Reading can be so many different and wonderful things.

It can be an act of self-care on a busy day. 

It can be a reunion with your favourite literary characters.

It can be educational or knowledge-building.

It can be a much-needed escape from the incredibly “online” world we all live in.

It can be a conversation-starter.

It can be a bedtime ritual with your favourite little human(s).

All great reasons to read on the regular, amirite? So, with all the great benefits that come from reading… why did I stop?

I don’t know, really. Life got busy. I think I stopped reading for myself around the time I gave birth to my son — which probably coincided with when I picked up a pretty nasty social-media-scrolling-problem while I was breastfeeding. And once I fell out of the habit, I simply replaced the time I would normally spend reading with OTHER habits.

Netflix. YouTube. Instagram-scrolling.

Time eaters, all of them.

My son is almost 5 now. We make a habit of reading to HIM every day, and he loooves his books. We check out half of the library every time we make a trip there! Earlier this year, I was perusing the very small English language section in my local library (I live in Germany), and decided to take a small fictional — and probably somewhat smutty — book home with me.

It wasn’t a work of literary magic or anything…but it kickstarted something inside of me. A joy I had forgotten.

Before I knew it, I was back at the library, signing out another book. And then I was researching Kindles, so I could read more easily at night in bed. I was discussing book recommendations with friends and family. And buying books for various areas of my life that I wanted to learn more about.

And now, here I am. 5 books. Done and dusted. And we’re barely into the month of May.

I am such a book-reading BADASS.

In my most recently completed book (‘Healthy as F*ck’ by Oonagh Duncan), I was reading about habit-forming behaviours. One of her tips for when you are trying to form a new habit (…or pick up an old one, like reading), but find yourself making excuses as to why you can’t find/make the time, is to do the habit totally ‘half-assed’.

In other words, pick up the damn book and read ONE page. Even if you don’t want to. Even if you think you don’t have time.

One page is more than zero. And who knows… maybe one page will turn into two. Or twenty. Either way, reading that one page is creating a point on a trend line that will ultimately result in you finishing that book.

Now… what happens if we take that tip and apply it to another area of our life?

Like moving our body more.

Or finishing that essay we’ve been procrastinating for school.

Or reigniting the flame with our significant other.

Sometimes, we build tasks up in our heads until they seem totally overwhelming or insurmountable. We are so busy focusing on making it to the final pages of the story (or not!), that we forget we actually have to start the damn book.

One page at a time.

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