Finishing is not a Must
What came to your mind as you read this topic? Probably school 😂.
Today, whether finishing school is a must or not is not my focus here because I don't have enough experience or information on that. My finishing here is in regard to books. I mean non-academic books.
I hear people condemning themselves as indisciplined, unable to commit, having short attention spans, and even irresponsible because they did not finish a book before picking up another. (I'm referring to fiction and non-fiction books here but I will be making more reference to non-fiction, self-help books)
Some others don't go as far as condemning themselves, they just make jokes about their "inability" to commit to finishing a book before picking the next. I even saw a meme yesterday on Instagram referencing it.
Anytime I hear or see people talking about it, I ask myself the same question, "Must you finish?" or "Must you finish at once?" I decided to look at myself and evaluate myself a little and my reading habits to see if finishing a book before picking another is a "must", "should", or a "maybe".
Maybe I should mention before we continue that I am sitting comfortably on the table of not finishing books before jumping into another 💅🏾💅🏾.
Why do you read?
The first question you should ask yourself is why, what is your why for reading? Especially for self-help or personal development book readers. Do you read it just so you can add it to your tally of books read? If that is your why, then maybe finishing is a must for you.
I picked up "48 Laws of Power" by Robert Greene around June last year and started reading it because a friend mentioned it to me. I knew Robert Greene to be an expert on communication, human relations, management and understanding human nature because I had read (and not finished 😂) "The Laws of Human Nature" by him as well. I expected the book to help me relate better with people and to make me the "Perfect Courtier", Robert's favorite person.
Did I finish the book? No. Why? Because at a point, I felt the laws left were no longer of immediate relevance to me, plus I picked another book, "Atomic Habits" by James Clear and that one had more importance to me at that point.
Is reading self-help books about checking off a list of books read or about the impartation on your life?
Think about it.
