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At the beginning of 2023 I set a goal of reading 100 books in the year. This was a personal goal about bringing more of what I love into my life and routine in 2023. So often annual resolutions are about reducing or changing our bad habits and I wanted one that focused on something positive. Bringing more of what I love—reading—into my life. I’ve always loved reading and read voraciously, but I’d never kept a book journal or tracked how many books I was reading. I was curious to see if 100 books would be difficult for me or rather in keeping pace with my normal reading rate.
I started off strong with this goal, for the first five months I was surpassing my monthly read goals with ease. I was discovering new authors and enjoying everything. But during the summer I got distracted. Other things just started to seem more important and I fell out of my reading routine. October hit and I realized I was so far behind on my goal of a 100 books that I would have to really cram a lot of books into the last months of the year.
A friend reminded me that I didn’t need to hit my goal. I was the only one holding myself accountable and my overarching motivation was to read more books—which I had achieved. But as much as those words were true I don’t want to give up my goal even though now it will be hard work to achieve it.
So often when it comes to creative goals and dreams we do give ourselves slack. There’s always more important things to spend our time and energy on than a fun goal like reading a certain number of books, or taking that watercolor class, or learning how to knit. We always get done the things we have to get done, but we don’t make ourselves do the things we want when life starts being hard. We want to be accomplished with this skill one day, but today it feels difficult to show up and practice, especially when that skill or goal serves no ultimate purpose other pleasure. Like what will I achieve if I read 100 books this year? I won’t earn more money, I won’t have a new talent or skill. It’s a hobby that costs me time and money. But sometimes the hobby is the reward itself.
It might just be a silly little reading goal, but I’m going to take it as seriously as I take other goals and apply the same discipline. Because I’m going to take my passions and creative goals seriously. Are you going to show up for that creative dream today? Are you going to apply discipline and work ethic not only to your work, but also your passions?
I’ll leave you with this quote from Dead Poets Society because to me it sums up the importance of our passion projects and hobbies: “We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
All the best,
Rebecca
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