Hi guys,
This is a bit of an odd post, normally I post about my travels which you can see from my profile but today I'm not so I do apologise.
I want to mention something I noticed about reading recently. Especially reading books.
I've never really enjoyed reading. In fact appart from my Thomas the Tank books when I was little and Goosebumps I haven't really read properly since.
Me and my freinds got trapped in the gaming side of things see. I've always loved gaming. It's so much more interactive and the fun we had online was hilarious. Much better than staring at a book.
Gaming first, movies second, watching paint dry third and finnaly reading a "good book".
So why am I posting about reading books all of a sudden. Do I love reading now?
No
I'm still not fond of it, I still find it boring when you start a new book.
But
The books I'm reading are self help books and as boring to read as some of them can be, they've had a more positive impact on my life.
Let me repeat that.
They've had a more positive impact on my life
First off, they're self help meaning you help yourself by taking in knowledge from others. It's like school except you choose the subjects and you can walk out the "classroom whenever you want""
The latest book I read was called "how not to worry". Now I really don't see myself as a big worrier, some things don't bother me at all and I mean life threatening things.
*Jumping out a plane? Sure
Bunjee jumping? No problem
Having one of the worlds deadliest spiders on you which can kill you in an hour or less than? Yep
But simple things like booking flights and sorting out a holiday last minute scared the crap out of me.
What the hell?
So that book in particular helped me focus on strategy's to combat the worry or anxiety or whatever you want to call it.
The truth is, I've had so many things on my mind and they've all built up ontop of another becoming harder and harder to not stress about.
But
Let's say it wasn't a self help book (which I probably wouldn't bother reading)
I found that in order to read peacefully without disturbance I've literally got in the car and drove somewhere, just to read.
Sad right? I sure thought so the first few times.
But you see the places I drove were places I almost forgot about in my local area. Natural parks and lakes with people chilling out in the sun, walking their dogs, kayaking and sailing.
It brought me away from the "news" world (which is always bad) into the real world.
Places like this are naturally calm and relaxed. Being in this atmopshere helped me to let go of everything temporally. I may sound like a hippie bit it's true.
I've done more things too, I've applied for two new jobs. One of which is way above what I'm doing now.
I'm writing my own self help book on swimming which hopefully I'll release one day.
I've been exercising more both purposely and without noticing. (Walking)
I text a girl I met in Australia, caught up with her and now we're going on holiday to Italy together.
I sorted out my savings account
I cleared all my emails
All this just from reading a few books I picked up at the Library?
Surely not.
But I can't think of another explanation.
Let me remind you, I still find reading kind of boring but forcing myself to do so has made small positive changes in my life which I realise now is more worth it than being "comfortable" and just watching my life go by.
So if your reading this and perhaps you are in a simular state to me, sign up to the library and go and find some self help books that suite YOU
Force yourself to read them 7 minutes, yes 7 minutes a day.
Perhaps you will have more control over your life or at least realise you have more control.
Thank you for reading