Rekindled Love

This year I have fallen back in love with reading. When I was a kid I was a huge huge reader. I read every Nancy Drew book, every Judy Blume, every Encyclopedia Brown, every Babysitter's Club, and every Sweet Valley High (and middle school and unviersity etc). But as high school and college hit, my reading mainly focused on school related topics. Though I have read some in recent years, I just had a horrible habit of not ever finishing books.

So earlier this year I took the idea from Lindsey to make a Book List for the year. Actually thinking through, prioritizing, and identifying the books I really wanted to read instead of just reading whatever came my way has really helped me stay on track. And having a deadline of when I wanted them read by has motivated me to actually read.

Then I found the "Fall into Reading Challenge". It was at a great time to give me another boost to keep up the reading. And now here I am, in December of 2009, and I have read 14 books so far. I am almost done with 2 others. And I have enjoyed majority of them alot, learned quite a bit from several of them, and disliked just a few.

So the moral of this post? I wanted to give any of you who are wanting to read more (or do anything more for that matter) some steps to take towards making that a reality. These are the things that worked for me:

1. make a list, identifying want you want to read (or do)

2. prioritize that list

3. give yourself a timeline

4. tell someone, or lots of someones, so that you are held accountable

5. put it somewhere you will see it often

6. take the first step to do it

So what is it you really would like to do, for you? Reading is something that I enjoy, something I do simply for me. More often than not today, we fill up all of our time going going going and doing everything for everyone but us. Now I am not saying we should just live selfish lives, because a Christ focused life is a servant focused life. What I am saying is that we have to learn to love ourselves too. And as Biggest Loser always says, "we need to put ourselves back on the list". When we take some time to take care of ourselves, we guard against bitterness towards those we serve and emptiness or a lack of purpose, etc. So pick something that you will do for you today, and see if it blesses those around you. I know for me and mr.pate, this has been very true.