4 things I’ve learned from reading 50 books in a year.

I’m the best at starting things. First out the blocks, eat my dust kind of starter. Starting is where I shine.

Finishing things? That’s where I struggle. I lose steam, my side hurts and the sun gets in my eyes. 

That’s why I started this reading challenge. I wanted to finish something big. Just before Thanksgiving break 2018, I set the goal to read 50 books before Thanksgiving 2019. Why didn’t I wait until January and make a New Year’s Resolution like a normal person? Because I’m impatient. When I want to start, I want to start RIGHT NOW. That’s probably why I’ve had so many false starts (are you tired of the racing metaphor yet?).

Originally, consistent with my "go big or go home" life motto, I set my goal of 100 books in a year. I quickly realized 100 was way too many, considering my current average was about 10 a year. So as Jon Acuff recommended in the first book I read: Finish (I know right?), cut your goal in half. So 50 it was.

The other thing I learned in that first book, was that I make the rules of my goal. And if anyone tells me a book doesn’t count, I’d say, “Says who?” I liked the idea of ownership of my own goal. So I decided: Audiobooks count, short books count, manuals - no, ridiculously long emails - no, children’s books - no (unless it’s a YA chapter book). And away I went!

First I want to highlight 4 main things I learned in this gigantic challenge:

1. Reading 50 books a year is hard.

People close to me warned me of the difficulty when I first announced this challenge. And many, many other people since then. Yes, people will doubt you. People will ignore you. People will condescend to you: "Well, you must have a lot of time on your hands." Ha! (Time is a topic for another article) The truth is sticking to this goal was really hard. But if a goal isn’t hard, then what’s the point? If I made this goal too easy, I wouldn’t be as proud as I am right now. I knew it’d be tough. I knew I’d have to make sacrifices, and I knew I wouldn’t always enjoy it.

2. Accountability is key.

I firmly believe that if I didn’t post each and every book on social media, I would have given up. I didn’t recruit a group of friends to keep me accountable. (People have their own lives to worry about). I just put my books on social media and kept myself accountable. I would post the book with a review and check it off my list. I didn’t care if I got any likes at all. Posting was just my own accountability tool. I felt that if it was out there, somehow, people were watching and would call me out if I skipped a book or stopped posting. Plus, my kids were keeping track and I definitely couldn’t let them down.

3. Set micro goals. 

See #1. Reading 50 books in a year is hard. “That’s a book a week!” said Donnie. That’s definitely daunting-sounding. So, I set a micro goal of 4-5 books a month. I tried to get at least 4 every month. Some months I had 3 and other months I had 6, but it all evened out in the end.

4. Know the big purpose for the goal.

I wasn’t trying to finish 50 books for the sake of finishing 50 books. I'm not sure that reason alone would carry me a whole year. I had many reasons: 1.) I just wanted to finish something big. 2.) I wanted to grow more in my career and as a leader. 3.) I wanted to guiltlessly read more fiction. 4.) I desperately needed to sit still. That last one has its own back story, but for this article, let’s just say, reading a physical book can be very therapeutic and relaxing for someone whose brain is going a million miles an hour, 24/7.

I hope those 4 things are helpful when you start a gigantic challenge.

Now, by request, I’d like to share the books I read, by category. Orange checkmark is an audio book and blue is a physical book.

There it is! My list of 50 books. I will say, overall, Fiction was the hardest category for me to read. I was most drawn to self development and I learned the most in the Nonfiction category.

If you have any questions or would like a “hot or not” rating, just ask!