Reading is a superpower. It can serve as a form of leisure, and to improve your life both at work and at home. By taking the time to read periodically or even work it into your daily routine, you are furthering yourself personally and professionally. If you’re not already convinced that reading is essential, here are some reasons why you need to read more.
Work Benefits
- Knowledge
Reading helps you gain insight. Point blank, if you read, you learn about stuff you wouldn’t otherwise know about. Being able to pull random facts out of your hat can help in unexpected contexts like staff meetings, staff bonding nights at the trivia bar, or in casual, routine conversations to impress a co-worker. Having an arsenal of knowledge at your disposal makes you fierce. - Vocabulary
Reading expands your vocabulary. Similarly, to the knowledge bit, being able to speak with eloquence and finesse helps your cause when it comes to professional outings, presentations, and job interviews. Your co-workers may even be inspired by your use of quintessential expressions and become motivated to read a little more for themselves. - Literary References
You’ll understand more literary references. When your boss or your colleague references one literary work in a conversation about another, you’ll stand a chance of knowing what in the world they’re babbling about. Skip reading, and you’ll be left in the dark. Truth be told, you might be in the dark anyway, but at least you’ll be able to make your literary references to steer the conversation gracefully back to common ground. - Writing
Reading makes you a better writer. All those press releases, articles, and reports you’re in charge of at work will benefit from your bookworm fetish. Even your emails might become a little more smoothly written. - Focus
You’ll learn to focus more intensely for longer periods of time. Your deadlines will gradually seem to get less intimidating, which will probably improve your overall mood. Your co-workers will have even more time to chat your ear off about what happened at Susie’s soccer game last night, hooray. - Social Skills
You’ll become more socially adept. Thanks to tracking characters’ thoughts throughout books, you’ll have more experience interpreting thoughts and behaviours, which transfers to real life. It might serve to shift your perspective enough that you’ll have a little more compassion for matters outside of your control. - Critical Thinking and Memory
It will teach you to question everything and remember everything. Analytical thinking and memory are both improved by reading. With the powers of critical thought and retention, you are nobody to mess with in the break room.
Home Benefits
- Flow State
Reading brings you in the flow state, or happy place. When all your attention is focused on something you enjoy, your brain benefits. This reduces stress by sixty-eight percent in just six minutes and relaxes you physically and mentally faster than lots of other outlets. - Self-Discovery
You’ll discover more about yourself. As you figure out what you like to read and which sorts of material resonate with you, you’ll have the chance to examine components of yourself. This can come across as a little scary, but ultimately it can be transformative. - Solidarity
You might feel understood, validated, and less alone. Characters, though often fictitious, serve as proof that at least their author has had thoughts like yours. - Culture and History
You have the option to learn about diverse cultures from a historical perspective. Learning about history provides context for your life and valuable perspective about comparisons between the environments you read about versus your reality. You may find that you have lots to be grateful for. - Mental Stimulation
Your brain will be stimulated rather than zoning out to a television show or your phone. Reading is a workout for your mind. It takes work to keep up with characters and events along the course of a plot line. Sometimes, depending on your reading material, it even requires imagination. - Self-Care
Reading is one of the best forms of self-care assuming you enjoy reading. Take the time to do it for yourself, to escape reality for just a few moments each day. Reap the benefits as you will see more self-care resources here.
Truly, reading benefits you significantly at work and home. Taking the time to indulge in a great piece of literature for a few minutes each day can be massively beneficial. So, grab a book today and change your life for the better! Do share this post if you found it helpful.
