Lessons I’ve Learned From Reading Every Day: 10 Life-Changing Skills

Master reading, and you’ll be able to write like a pro

Reading can be an outstanding experience but also a painful one.

In the 1990s, my mother forced me to read every day. But all I wanted to do was to play soccer with my best friends in the street. Believe me, reading wasn’t the best experience for a young kid like me.

Nowadays, I cannot live without it. It’s one of the few things that complete me.

Yet, why so many people haven’t got this habit? Most of my friends don’t read. Literacy is at an all-time high: it’s 99% in the USA. Have you ever had a conversation with a friend about a book, and he or she gave you that look?

It’s almost desperate to find someone from our restricted club with the love about books. You have to be like those biologists in a remote mountain looking for a flower as rare as a hen’s teeth.

Readers know what you know. They feel the power of reading as you do. And when you find someone who reads more than you, you can be hours and days talking about different subjects.

It’s rare but fills your soul.

Then that person goes away, and you feel alone again. You return to the routine of being bombed with information that you don’t need. Or news you’re not interested in, or conversations that you could avoid.

In the tsunami of content that nowadays invades our eyes, you can always slow down. Follow the author’s path. And let yourself flow into the magical tidal current of good storytelling.

Reading Furnishes the Mind, Only With Materials of Knowledge

Stephen D. Krashen Ph.D. is one of the most respected investigators on reading habits. In one of his lectures, he explains how children from the sixth-grade improved their skills in reading.

It’s called Free Voluntary Reading.

That’s the finding of William Marson, a sixth-grade teacher at Elim Elementary School in Hilmar, California.

Free Voluntary Reading is just as its name states. It’s free reading; students are free to choose the materials they want to read. And it’s voluntary reading; students can choose to — or not to — report in-class on the assignment they’ve done. Students are also free to — or not to — read at home.- educationworld.com.

Krashen defines Free Voluntary Reading as the source of our reading ability. Also vocabulary, and belief, in complex schematical construction. Most of our ability to spell.

Some things are exciting in his studies. Some of his students that do FVR (Free voluntary reading) have better grades than the grammar students. The reason is that the knowledge of the conventions of vocabulary and grammar are acquired, not learned. They’re subconsciously absorbed. It’s stored in their central nervous system.

FVR is Sustained Silent Reading in its purest form. No requirements! No book reports. No journal entries. No chapter questions. No required home reading. It’s a chance for students to kick back and read, no strings attached, says Marson.

Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding found that students who had the most success in reading came from classrooms. Teachers routinely read aloud to the class. A wide assortment of books was available. Sustained Silent Reading was scheduled during the school day.

But we are always on time to make up for the time we lost. How?

Reading a lot and always. Reading everywhere. Reading until your eyes hurt.

10 Most Powerful Skills for Those Who Read Every Day

Let me share with you the top 10 skills we develop if we read every day:

1- Reading is food for the brain: by reading every day, we extend our brain capacity in memorizing, focusing, concentration, reasoning, and complex schematic construction.

2- You become better at conversations: you will retain new words and phrases as you keep reading. You find yourself speaking more articulately, using terms that complement each other and enrich the way you talk to others.

3- Unbelievable outstanding people can mentor you: I read at least one biography per year. For several years I have been doing that. And the more I read biographies, the more I understand human behavior.

4- Reading improves your focus and concentration: it’s a skill that has to be enhanced by repetition. Like training sessions for a marathon. The more you read, the more your brain fitness develops a higher focus and concentration. And you can transfer that skills to other tasks in your life.

5- Reading opens your mind: each time you read a book, it’s a new opportunity to travel with the author to his world. Like playing a character and feeling everything that that character feels. You travel to countless worlds. Unimaginable scenarios. And learn with each step you take. New ideas, new concepts, new principles.

6- Reading helps you to relax; if you can have the discipline to read before you go to bed, you’re already a winner. You win the capacity of lowering down your adrenaline from your daily routine. You low your energy and allow your brain to reduce stress levels. So you can fall asleep and favor a good, regenerative and enriching sleep.

7- Reading helps you improve your memory; if you read a novel, you must memorize the characters’ names, places, and other things that build the story. So, by doing that, you’re improving your memory skills. If you read a technical book, you have to memorize new concepts and learn new skills. It’s always a win-win situation.

8- Reading helps you make better decisions; reading biographies is the best practice to learn how to make better decisions in your life. You know what not to do by understanding the consequences of bad decisions made by the author;

9- Reading can help you improve your argumentative ability; as we increase the quantity and variety of words in our vocabulary, the more we share our opinion in a clearer way. Besides, our ability to see the world is another. We have more knowledge and can argue with living examples to support our reasoning.

10- By reading, you can change your personality and beliefs: by reading various authors from different cultures, religions, and ideas, you have the opportunity to reflect on your preconceptions. Reflecting on the way you see the world and confronting it with other experiences, other cultures, you immediately start to put your opinions in perspective. Making the parallelism with the way people think in other parts of the globe.

Final Thought

I’m sure that I’d be a completely different person if I haven’t got a taste for reading.

First, I wouldn’t be writing and sharing my knowledge and my thoughts with you.

Second, I couldn’t have the privilege of friendships. Friendships with people that enrich my mind. People with new perspectives, great humor, and deep thoughts about life itself.

Third, I could never travel to magical places and great scenarios. Being driven by thousands of different authors. Traveling, for a certain period, into a time machine. And guide me to another galaxy of unimaginable places.

Reading makes you a better version of yourself.

You will never be a good writer if you can’t be a good reader.

Nobody can be that interesting without having the capacity to travel. Flow into other stories, driven by other minds, transported to different scenarios. And land with your feet on other worlds. Surrounded by smells you never smelled, flavors you never tasted, hugs you never felt.

Reading redesign the road you have to walk to become a dedicated writer.

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