5 unique ways reading improves your career

Are you also thinking that reading is too much work? Well, tell me how you can communicate without reading? Don’t get confused here. When I say reading, I don’t necessarily mean voluminous books stuck in libraries. We read every single day; from manuals, price tags, billboards, expiry dates on products, blog posts, social media chats, YouTube videos, online ads, newspapers, recipe books and magazines and so on. You get the drift, right? Can you really do without any of these in trying to improve your career skills? Your guess is as good as mine. Let’s discover more about how reading improves your career.

What reading really means

Yes, intellect is important but that’s not all there is. Reading also includes sign language. We not only read with our eyes, but interpretation and reactions start from our minds. Ever heard the phrase, reading meaning into something? Have you ever realized some truth and exclaimed, oh, I see, or I understand? Our sense organs; the eyes, ears, mouth and even our noses count in communication. It’s all about being able to decode information, process and make meaning and act on them.

Forms of reading

To read, process it and act upon it, it involves actions such as writing, acting, watching movies (not only those with subtitles, but reading meaning into their actions) painting or artistic drawing, music and speaking. Everyone identifies and responds to at least one of the sense organs or stimuli to produce some form of reading. Otherwise, the world may seem gloomy and non-existent.

Is reading a career skill?

OMG, WHO SAYS READING IS FOR INTROVERTS OR GEEKS? YOU’VE GOT IT ALL WRONG!

Every career needs some basic form of reading or writing, even if it is in a local language. No one mentioned English here o. Technology improves by the minute, and many life-transforming concepts from parenting, relationships, music, spirituality, fashion and cooking emerge every day. People learn, and share ideas on what has worked or didn’t work for them in books and online media. Why should not being able to read or write hinder your career development? So, yes, reading is a crucial skill everyone must have! In this article, we’re going to focus on reading and writing.

Imagine the gravity of losses you could make, just because you didn’t critically read, and therefore respond appropriately to a legal document, a contract, the measurement of a client, an official document, an assignment, a compulsory exam question or worse still, a prescription?

How does reading help you improve your life as a student, employer/employee?

1. Reading stimulates your thinking and broadens your knowledge in your chosen field.

Where do ideas even come from? There really is nothing new under the sun! Why move in circles and loose sleep working hard only to come up with the first result of Thomas Edison’s fluorescent bulb, when you can build on the latest model? Work smart, not hard!

Research has proven that keeping the brain active slows down the progress of Alzheimer’s and Dementia (Robert S. Wilson, PhD, Neuropsychology professor).
Ideas could come from an action some stranger made while looking out the window, movies, and people’s reactions to good or bad news.

READ ALSO: 7 tips on how to write a grade A essay

2. Reading and writing is a good way to reduce stress.

Reading can make you laugh, encourage or distract you from problems for a bit and allow you relax. Research has shown that spiritual texts can lower blood pressure and help people with mood disorders. Writing is therapeutic. It’s a good way to let out your frustrations, worry and pain, whether it’s a blog article or anonymous gossip stories like Lady Whistledown in the movie “Bridgerton”. They have the capacity to keep you at peace. Do you also subscribe to the adage, if you want to hide something from Africans, put it in a book? For lack of knowledge, people perish!

3. Reading keeps your brain young, improves vocabulary and improves your writing skills.

Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. You learn how to write well by writing. Yes, I mean, just keep reading and writing. It’s still debatable how much of our brains we use. However, you and I cannot deny the fact that it’s not necessary to remember every single detail all the time.

Research has it that, those who write about what happens around them overcome tough moments quicker than those who don’t.

You will have more memories (keep the good ones) than just photos or videos and even maybe publish a book or act them out in a play in the future.

4. Writing helps you reflect on your life and think more critically about some major changes.

Check out the things you have accomplished, the mistakes you have made, and alter your plans or keep them as they are with no strict rules. This is not restricted to end-of-year resolutions or new year resolutions. You craft them how you deem fit.

5. Writing can be a career on its own.

You can blog like me, be a newspaper columnist, a researcher or an author. Freelancing is not just about the money, but serve as a platform to connect with people, influence, build a network and also learn from others.

Writing well makes you a living legend. Your thoughts will grow with people. Even after you’re gone, you’ll continue to inspire and encourage others. Creative people will brood over your work, criticize, improve and carry on the ideas.

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Selected quotes on writing and how reading improves your career

1. “Writing is a key way of refining your thoughts, that is, the man who reads and thinks a whole lot”.

• Warren Buffet

2. “Everything in life can be written. It only takes guts and imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt”.

• Sylvia Path

3. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”.

• Maya Angelou

4. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies….The man who never reads lives only once”.

• George R. Martin

5. “Some books leave us free and some books make us free”.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. “Books are a uniquely portable magic”.

• Stephen King

7. “Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world”.

• Napoleon Bonaparte

8. “If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book”.

• K. Rowling

9. “Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary”.

• Jim Rohn

10. “You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend”.

• Paul Sweeney

11. “The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t”.

• Mark Twain

12. “Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere”.

• Mary Schmich

13. “Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for”.

• Socrates

14. “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark”.

• Victor Hugo

15. “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader – not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon”.

• L Doctorow

16. “I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading”.

• Charles Kuralt

17. “Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way”.

• Ray Bradbury

18. “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or tools) to write. Simple as that”.

• Stephen King

So, you see how writing and reading improves your career, your personal development and leadership skills? Do not limit yourself to what you know, that’s how you become stagnant and irrelevant. “Nyansa nni onipa baakofo tiri mu”.