Check out some ways a book transforms a life:
- It will give a sense of belonging. It will remind you that you are not alone in life and your struggles and experiences are shared by the author.
- It will impart something you didn’t know……a fact, a theory, a point of view, an emotion.
- It will humble you. It will teach you something. When you accept its teaching by implementing it, you’ve engaged in an act of humility.
- It will open your eyes to self. It will cause you to see yourself as if you were looking in a mirror. When you read something that has you nodding and thinking, yes, that is how it is, you’ve just found a part of yourself. The words written by an author who’s likely a stranger helped you connect with you.
- It will transform a present moment. Reading helps you remain calm. It’s therapeutic. Once you start digging into a good book that’s caught your attention, time ceases to exist, your mind is completely immersed in what is in front of you. When you are fully engaged in a book, reading makes you stop rushing or running from one point to the next. Instead, you are where you need to be, right here, doing this….all other things are secondary. The worries, anguish, fears, and ambitions of a moment ago are boxed away in a container that read, “for later”.
- It will impart joy. Reading should be pleasurable. The amount of time and space you invest should be an investment, not a cost. The return on this investment should be some sort of joy….a joy in having read or experienced it, a joy in having learned from it. Read what enriches your life and your life will change because of it.
- It will change behaviors. When you change, others around you will react positively to your transformation.