reading Archives - The Future Mindset

Why I Love Reading

Why reading is important for personal growth looking out a window — Photo by Kinga Cichewicz via Unsplash

Up until 23 I never read a book on my own from start to finish. Now at 30, I have read 34. That’s just under 5 books a year. My 18-year-old self would be shocked. In my family home, there was no bookshelf or bedtime reading. The only reading material I read was mainly football. (I loved the weekly Match magazine)

What led me to read my first book Think And Grow Rich was my mentor at the time had a great book collection and read all the time to better himself. I thought I will give this a go. For me, it’s one of my fondest memories reading that book and the sense of achievement actually finishing it. The amount of knowledge my brain soaked up was imminence. I came out of it with a better understanding of life and a full review of my own thinking and what I had to improve.

Also when I’m studying any successful person they seem to always have some sought of a library in their home. Two of the richest men on the planet Bill Gates and Warren Buffet consume books all year round.

The Positive factor

Now I knew why and I was hooked. I continued my journey up until I finished my latest book This Is Marketing and not only do I get lots of new information I can apply. Reading a physical book has become like meditation for me to not only focus my brain but it also fuels it to think more positively about life and myself.

Reading has become a part of my life that I will never stop consuming and below I will show you the main benefits you can get from reading. If you were like me who never read any books, this is definitely for you.

The 4 Benefits Of Reading

Unlocks The Imagination

What’s great about reading personal growth books is that it unlocks your imagination to tons of new ideas of how to apply and better your own life. Some of the ideas I have developed from reading have made me a better human being but have financially moved me forward in life. It’s like a dot to dot game where these new ideas connect with olds one to create the idea that can change how you think about everything. Just like with fantasy and Sci-Fi books you can gain a whole new world of ideas from personal growth books.

Makes You An Expert

Through reading, you become an expert on certain topics. I now know more about finance, leaderships and mindset more than school or a university lecture could teach me. I have found the best examples in any chosen field and absorbed all their information to know what they know. It shows university, for example, is not the only path you should take to do well in life and the information you seek to start your own business can be found just as easily in books rather than paying a fortune for a vast amount of degrees that are useless upon leaving university.

Move Your Life Forward

Reading is the fuel that moves you forward in life. Every book I have read has given me a source of information that’s benefited myself and others around me. It can allow you to forge a pathway you never thought possible. A new mentality to life than the one you have been taught all your life.

You should look at reading as building a skyscraper for your life. It helps you forge a strong foundation that you can build upon over time. As an adult, I had to build a brand new skyscraper and use only the good information I was taught growing up to facilitate my foundations. Build your foundations today with what you learn from books. The stronger you can make the foundation the easier your life will become to overcome challneges.

Only Through Action Will You See It’s Benefits

I could easily sit and read book after book but if I don’t apply any of the information I have read. It was just a wasted experience. The only success you can get from reading a book on personal growth is if you apply it and make it work for you. That’s when reading is beneficial to you. Don’t just read for the sake of reading. Read like your making a jigsaw puzzle. You have to find all the pieces from the book to put all the ideas together into action.

Why reading is important for personal growth with a young women reading — Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

Conclusion

For me, reading has changed my life for the better. These benefits are from my own personal experience. There is a reason why people are the best in their particular field and it’s because they read regularly. It’s because reading is a major part of our growth strategy.

Of course, I gather information from all sorts of places like podcasts, online and in-person but for me there nothing like holding a book and turning the pages as you gather all those new ideas.

Do you read regularly? What’s your favourite personal growth book? Were you like me, not an avid reader?

I would love to hear from you in the comments.

After seeing the major improvement in my sons reading i have put together The 8 Benefits Of Bedtime Reading. It has really helped him in many ways and has developed his mindset in the process.

When it comes to bedtime my son demands a bedtime story. He loves it and all the crazy stories that unlock his imagination. Bedtime stories were never a thing growing up, it was more brush your teeth then bed. But as a child growing up in the 90’s with the lack of technology compared to today. Imagination was all I had sometimes.

Looking back on the worlds I used to create was of such enjoyment. As a parent I decided reading to my son was important not only for unlocking new worlds in his life but also through researching the psychological benefits he can get from it. The important part of bedtime reading is that this will be the last thing they hear before they enter their dreams. So I have outlined 8 benefits of bedtime reading has had on my son.

1. Makes Them Want To Read

Since we have read a book to our son at bedtime. Once the book is finished he automatically will read the same book for himself. Children want to be a mini version of you. So when you read to them and the enjoyment they get from this experience. Of course they want that for themselves. Now he’s an avid reader of David Walliams books. He loves Gangsta Granny.

2. Improves Their Reading Skills

It’s amazing the progress a child can make in such a short space of time. We have noticed a sharp improvement when we read more to him and he reads back to us. His vocabulary and the expression of words has improved immensely. Now his understanding of the world he lives in is far greater.

3. Unlocks Their Imagination

A great benefit of bedtime reading to children is the crazy adventures you can go on. The books they read unlocks their imagination to worlds they have never thought possible. The best thing is, it allows them to think anything is possible. Therefore, helps them develop their imagination which we hear and see him do daily. He has writing his own story’s about his sister called The Claw. It’s very funny and has been helped by the books we read at night.

4. 1-1 Bonding

What’s brilliant about bedtime reading is the bonding you get from it. We all have busy lives to lead and giving time to your children can be a balancing act. When they know that bedtime reading is for you and them. It gives them great comfort in that. When we get older these are memories we cherish with our parents. The times we spent together.

5. Teach Valuable Lessons Before Bed

Dr Seuss once wrote: “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” For instance, we read as small child The Very Hungry Caterpillar which taught the story about the benefits of eating well while shedding light on the stages of a butterflies metamorphic life. Dr Seuss’ Lorax warns of the dangers of pollution and industrialisation in a world where the beautiful Truffala trees are all being cut down to make way for more things. “Progress” vs. the environment’s natural beauty continues to be a challenge, making this story eternally relevant. The story ends with hope and the realisation that “Unless someone like you…cares a whole awful lot…nothing is going to get better…It’s not.”

6. Makes For Good Dreams

A true benefit of bedtime stories is that your child will go to bed peace of mind. With the imagination on fire, they will take this to their dreams and intern lead to comforting and spectacular dreams. Well, that’s what we hear from our son anyway. It’s important to have good experience before bed as when we go sleep this is an important part of recalling what we have learnt the previous day to apply the next. When you were young you might have sneaked to watch a scary film. I had the fortunate and unfortunate joy of watching Chuckie. Now it’s laughable as to how not scary it is but in the early 90s as a small child the nightmare I had from watching it was scary, to say the least. That’s why it’s important to have a positive experience before bed.

7. Brain Development

By reading it helps build cognitive function within your child’s mind. A study showed that greater home reading exposure was strongly associated with activation of specific brain areas supporting semantic processing (the extraction of meaning from language). These areas are critical for oral language and later for reading. Brain areas supporting mental imagery showed particularly strong activation, suggesting that visualisation plays a key role in narrative comprehension and reading readiness, allowing children to “see” the story. As Dr Hutton said “This becomes increasingly important as children advance from books with pictures to books without them, where they must imagine what is going on in the text.” This study amongst others show the importance of reading and there is no better place to start than bedtime reading to develop your child’s brain.

8. Inspires Creation

What’s been amazing from all these stories we have read to him, is that it has inspired the creation of his storybook. Reading is a great form for unlocking the creative powers of your brain. Elon Musk the inventor of PayPal, Tesla and now Space x is a multi-billionaire who read hours upon hours of science fictions books that led to further reading of a plethora of other genres. This guided him and unlocked creativity in his brain that led to his invention. This shows the power of reading from a young age that allows further reading that inspires creation.

To conclude I hope The 8 Benefits Of Bedtime Reading has inspired you to get your old books out or visit your local charity shop to gather as many books as you can. Unlocking your child’s potential stems from bedtime reading. Why do all successful people have massive libraries in their homes? It’s because reading is important.

FUTURE MINDSET

At Future Mindset we are here to push the boundaries of our thoughts and actions. By chasing discomfort in our lives, it can lead us to unlock things inside us we never knew was there. Lets change our mindset to change our future.

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