The Mandalorian. His Dark Materials. Now, Cobra Kai. The last few weeks of December and the beginning of January meant more than just the end of 2020. The season ending episodes of each of my favorite shows had also occurred in a thrilling, but dreadfully short time period. So, now that I have watched everything that I love, aside from the occasional movie or Seinfeld rerun, I have focused more on reading, as I do at the beginning of most years.
I didn’t particularly enjoy reading growing up, aside from the odd sports or music related magazine. I was a bit of a rebel though, and may have associated reading with a school requirement. When I finally started reading for myself, in my late 20’s, I focused mainly on books that I thought would help me to grow. Books on marketing, leadership, behavioral economics and finance graced my bookshelf and occupied my time. I was thrilled to be learning things I was interested in and shunned fiction books considering them a less valuable use of my time and therefore rarely would indulge in reading for pleasure only.
Then, it happened. My extreme impatience led me to seek out the Game of Thrones books the day after I binge watched the first season of the HBO series. As I have written before, these books have had a profound effect on me. I experienced what many elementary school kids did the first time they read Harry Potter, I assume. I opened myself to a fantastical new world that was both amazing and inspiring. I burned through the first 1,000 page tome, then the next, then the next, then there weren’t any more finished books in the series! My impatience reared its head again. In order to pass the time until the next book was completed, I searched out similar stories.
The next several years I read several styles from several authors and finally settled into the genres and writers that I preferred. Over that time, I realized that I didn’t just enjoy these books, they helped me tremendously professionally. For one, I learned to read near an open web browser so that I could look up the meaning of so many words I never heard before. This has dramatically affected my vocabulary and my ability to speak publicly. Through these stories, I gained insight into politics, relationships, morality, and leadership.
Of course, I have seen Deus Ex Machina save the day multiple times. I have also seen incredibly clever solutions to world threatening problems by ordinary people (and elves). Luckily, I don’t have many issues that come across my desk that threaten the fate of humankind. However, I have learned that there are always different ways to look at things and almost all problems, no matter how epic, have a solution.
The small lessons learned through the journey of a character can also be inspirational. In a story that I am reading now by my favorite author, Brandon Sanderson, the protagonist in an apocalyptic style city explains to another character that the inhabitants’ demise has been caused by their shortsightedness and focus on daily struggles. His simple argument is that planting crops, instead of eating seeds, will ensure their survival. Short term pain for long term gain. This struck me because just last week, I had a conversation with a colleague about the best advice I took away from The E Myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber, was that you need to work ON your business, not just IN your business. Same lesson, I believe, just a different delivery.
Since I was awakened to the joy of reading and all of the benefits it offers, I have been a strong advocate. I implore you to borrow a book from a friend that they like, spend some time at the library or read reviews online and choose stories that you enjoy. Read to your children. Join a book club and discuss with friends. Read for yourself, for pleasure, and you never know what adventures you will experience, personally and professionally.