There’s enough never time. I’m too tired at the end of the day. I just can’t justify taking more time away from my family to do something for myself. I just don’t enjoy it. I lost interest after doing so much of it in the past. We have countless reasons why we don’t exercise, and we use the same ones for why we don’t read. 

I want to invite you to revisit reading and here is why. Reading helps you:

• Gain new perspectives

• Unplug and recharge

• Bring yourself entertainment and enjoyment

• Build role-specific business acumen

• Experience personal development

• Grow in your leadership and profession

• Expand your creative thinking

If you’re out of the habit of reading, here are three great ways to return to reading:

Limit yourself to 20 minutes.

One of the biggest obstacles is a perspective that we have to finish a chapter, an article, an hour or other big chunks that can make reading overwhelming. You’ll be amazed how much you read if you limit to 20 minutes a day. At an average reading rate of 250 words per minute, you’ll read 5000 words a day. An average book is 90,000 words. You’ll read a book in 18 days.

Read something for fun and escape. 

Choose a novel on a topic you’re interested in, even if you have that big pile of leadership, management or development books on your shelf. Give yourself permission to love reading first before you use reading for learning.

Subscribe to the blog of a thought leader you love.

Reading doesn’t have to be books. If there is a thought leader you love in your profession or perhaps a hobby or area of interest, subscribe to their blog and read just one article weekly.

If you are ready to get reading and are looking for some great leadership books, some of my all-time favorite leadership books are mentioned here.

My latest favourite leadership reads in the past year have been: Essentialism by Greg MacKeown and The Power of TED* by David Emerald.

Finally, a story that I enjoyed recently was The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins, while an old favorite, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, influenced me to travel to and fall in love with Japan.

I hope you’ll accept my invitation and start reading again.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. — Joseph Addison