Be Mediocre and Conquer the Habit of Reading
Read like a tortoise
How are your New Year’s Resolutions going? Did you make a goal of reading a certain amount of books? By this point, you’ve probably given up.
And here I am to encourage you to keep going.
This is my advice: be as mediocre as you can.
When we establish a New Year’s goal, we tend to be idealistic: “I will drop 30 pounds!” or “I will read 40 books!” We start with a ton of energy and resolve, but that lasts a very short time. By mid-January we start slacking off, and in February we decide that next year will be our year.
That’s why I’m not a fan of New Year’s Resolutions. I prefer New Year’s habits. Those things you can practice every day to get a little bit closer to the person you want to become.
They don’t have to be big changes. In fact, if you want to achieve great things, you must start with something mediocre.
I use this strategy when I’m writing. The blank page still terrifies me. So I stablish a mediocre goal of 50 words a day. Four sentences. That’s it.
I am right now trying to get over with my 50 words of the day. It was a terrible day. One of those days you just want to curl up in bed and watch TV until you pass out. Writing is the last thing I want to do right now. But knowing that I just have to write 50 words to keep up with my streak makes putting words on paper much less intimidating. I think I’ve already gone over my 50-word goal. Yes, I did. And I could keep going.
That’s how I managed to write a little bit today, which is better than writing nothing at all. My “mediocrity” made possible for this article to get to you a little bit sooner than if I had listened to my weariness and went to bed.
Be a tortoise
We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare. And still, we all seem to be like the hare. We set up to race with speed when we should focus on being consistent. We might not get distracted by arrogance, but we do get distracted by our weariness.
Wouldn’t it be better to be like the tortoise, slow and steady?
Come up with the most ridiculous reading goal you can imagine. Three pages? 1 minute? Two paragraphs? Sitting down and opening the book? It doesn’t matter. As tiny as it is, when you accomplish it, consider it a victory. And then go for that victory every day. Make a habit out of it.
Like the tortoise, you’ll see your small and slow but firm and constant steps will get you to the goal.
A version of this article was originally published in Spanish on Medium.
