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The reading habit that changed my life: enjoy reading. Why does everything have to be a chore?

mapcars 6y ago
People who lost an ability to enjoy start to make a competition out of everything. So at least they can get a little satisfaction from that they read faster then someone else and this is measurable. How much you enjoying though can't be measured so many don't count it as real.
bonoboTP 6y ago
Enjoyment only comes once you are good enough at something. At first it's a chore. Getting off the couch and going for a jog is a chore at first, a habit later and an enjoyment even later. Reading can be excruciating if you are hooked on smartphone apps and have a constant buzz in your head of all the exciting things you could be playing and watching and getting outraged about on apps and social media. But it gets better later on, and becomes natural to just shut out the noise. Initial discomfort is okay, we cannot just always follow the path of least resistance. Especially in these times when literally billions and billions of marketing dollars are spent on keeping you off-track, assisted by the brightest scientific minds, squeezing every last percentage out of making you a miserable mess.
noir_lord 6y ago
Because of the mistaken belief that doing something 'productive' is better than doing something you enjoy. Somewhere along the line lots of people decided that if they aren't running everyone else is running past them. The runners then posted endless blog posts about how they are faster runners and run for longer and it became it's old vicious circle. I opted out, Yesterday I spent two hours sat watching a working harbour (with the odd walk to get a coffee) - the boats coming and going, the change on the surface of the water as clouds floated past, the gulls swooping around and it was amazing - after that I spent a couple of hours riding around aimlessly on a motorcycle visiting villages I'd only seen as a name on a map before and running across interesting old buildings/memorials (socially distancing) and then headed home as the sun set. It was the closest I've felt to at peace in the last six months, nowhere to go, nothing that needed to be done. You don't have to be on a treadmill all your life, running without a destination is just running.

People who lost an ability to enjoy start to make a competition out of everything. So at least they can get a little satisfaction from that they read faster then someone else and this is measurable. How much you enjoying though can't be measured so many don't count it as real.

bonoboTP 6y ago

Enjoyment only comes once you are good enough at something. At first it's a chore. Getting off the couch and going for a jog is a chore at first, a habit later and an enjoyment even later. Reading can be excruciating if you are hooked on smartphone apps and have a constant buzz in your head of all the exciting things you could be playing and watching and getting outraged about on apps and social media. But it gets better later on, and becomes natural to just shut out the noise. Initial discomfort is okay, we cannot just always follow the path of least resistance. Especially in these times when literally billions and billions of marketing dollars are spent on keeping you off-track, assisted by the brightest scientific minds, squeezing every last percentage out of making you a miserable mess.

noir_lord 6y ago

Because of the mistaken belief that doing something 'productive' is better than doing something you enjoy. Somewhere along the line lots of people decided that if they aren't running everyone else is running past them. The runners then posted endless blog posts about how they are faster runners and run for longer and it became it's old vicious circle. I opted out, Yesterday I spent two hours sat watching a working harbour (with the odd walk to get a coffee) - the boats coming and going, the change on the surface of the water as clouds floated past, the gulls swooping around and it was amazing - after that I spent a couple of hours riding around aimlessly on a motorcycle visiting villages I'd only seen as a name on a map before and running across interesting old buildings/memorials (socially distancing) and then headed home as the sun set. It was the closest I've felt to at peace in the last six months, nowhere to go, nothing that needed to be done. You don't have to be on a treadmill all your life, running without a destination is just running.