I came across stats showing that the average reading level of adults in the United States is 7-8th grade level. This was quite surprising given that we are so globalized and online learning has beocme ubiquitous. On the flip side though, it could be attributable to the fact that technology that has advanced so much has made reading simply not as enticing as before.
However, I am here to address why you should start reading again in the midst of all the beautiful advancements.
With so much info that is quickly conveyed to us through videos and in audio, we don't necessarily find the need to dedicate our time in studying or reading something on a deeper level. But this has long-term consequences as we don't engage our brain actively for a prolonged period of time to increase our critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is necessary in all aspects of our lives, not only in our jobs but to solve our day-to-day problems and conflicts we may be faced with. It definitely takes critical thinking skills when starting your own business as well, to figure out ways to attract clients, and to construct an efficient system that could work long-term.
Another reason is simply to increase your ability to point out important information and absorb it. The thing is technological advancement brought us more info than we could ever absorb. So now, we need to develop ourselves in ways we can efficiently and effectively absorb useful information in a shorter period of time. And to do that is to keep your reading habit intact as it will gradually help you read faster and extract important information quickly. This way, we can take advantage of the web and AI that instantly grant us with lots of info, then we can point out and share the important ones to others who may not be as fast a reader as you are. This skillset can be of great use such as in teaching services, note-taking jobs, start-up businesses and marketing, self-branding, blog posts and many others. In other words, better reading skills can potentially make you more money or at least provide more diverse ways of making money.
Last and final reason you should keep reading is it increases your patience compared to those who might not read. We are a generation of instant gratification now and no one really has the patience for anything nowadays. Fast foods, fast info, fast results, fast delivery...everyone wants things done quickly. Now, it is great to be efficient, but if we constantly want best results while putting in as little time as we can, we most likely won't achieve the outcome we desire. So, the less patience you have, the more likely you will give up on something well before you can produce meaningful results. And this cycle will only lead you to be someone who isn't really well-versed in anything simply because you didn't have the patience to go through the long learning process. So, keep on reading to build your patience and the resilience to improve on something through a long but necessary process.
Final Words
I want my students to be better than average because we are all striving for success. Being stuck at the 7-8th grade reading level isn't bad but it probably won't help you excel in other areas of your life where reading is necessary. By sharing the reasons why you should keep reading, I want to motivate you to do so because it will produce many benefits, one of which may be that you can potentially make more money with your higher reading skills!
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