No matter what you do, the prerequisite is investing attention, and reading is no exception.
Building a genuine reading habit doesn't mean you must read for long stretches every single day without fail. The key lies in maintaining "continuity."
But the "continuous reading" I'm referring to isn't behavioral non-stop action; rather, it's the continuation of attention in real life.
Even when you close your book to eat, walk, or ride the subway, the content of the book still pulls at your mind.
Why maintain this continuation?
Because most of us, as human beings, are incapable of truly "thinking about nothing."
Once your attention loses focus, your consciousness can easily become chaotic, disordered, and anxious. In a natural state, when there is no clear thought to guide your mind, all kinds of random distractions will seize the opportunity to creep in.
Unless a person knows how to give order to his or her thoughts, attention will be attracted to whatever is most problematic at the moment... ——Flow
The author of Flow and his team made a significant discovery through tens of thousands of random psychological state samplings:
When people are in "free time" with nothing to do, the reported rates of anxiety, boredom, and mild depression are far higher than when they are in structured work or states of deep immersion.
To escape the anxiety brought on by idleness, we will "grab whatever is available" to fill the void.
This explains why, once we stop and have nothing to do, we often subconsciously start scrolling through short videos.
This constant phone-scrolling state produces a very subtle effect:
The more short videos you watch, the more likely you are to develop an urge to "imitate others."
Often, we think our desire to make money, buy luxury goods, or pursue a glamorous lifestyle stems from our own ambition. In reality, this is frequently the result of surrounding environmental influences, driving us to pursue what others deem valuable.
Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind. ——René Girard
Therefore, when you choose to invest your attention "continuously" in reading, it's not at all to show how diligent you are. Essentially, you are using reading to resist external interference.
When you invest the time and energy outside of work and study into thinking about your reading, or transform your reading inspirations into written output, it naturally replaces the draining act of scrolling through short videos.
Your brain won't have much excess space to accommodate other people's desires and anxiety-inducing content.
At this point, what you gain is:
- A comfortable sense of peace
- Rather than an inexplicable sense of scarcity
So, how exactly do we maintain this continuous investment of attention in reading amidst our fragmented reality?
My experience is: deliberate pausing.
The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. ——Ernest Hemingway
When writing, Hemingway would deliberately stop in the middle of a sentence when he felt most inspired and knew what would happen next, ensuring that his brain would automatically pick up the thread the next day.
The same logic applies to reading. When you are about to close your book to eat or catch the subway, don't always think, "I'll stop after finishing this chapter."
Try deliberately interrupting your reading at a controversial viewpoint or right before a thought-provoking question.
Carry that unresolved question into your daily life:
- In the shower, let the sound of the rushing water accompany your reflection on the book's content.
- On your commute, let the noise of the train carriage become the background music for your thoughts on that concept...
When your mind is always occupied with these thoughts, and you look at the world around you, you will notice a wonderful phenomenon:
Those things that used to easily distract you will no longer be so attractive. Even the brief stimulation from short videos will seem incredibly dull, because your attention has already been captured by more valuable content.
Therefore, do not treat reading as a "task" that needs to be checked off.
Treat the content you read as a suspenseful hook, a seed planted in your heart that you continuously revisit.
The most important part of "continuous" reading is not necessarily finishing a particular book, but rather protecting your mental energy and steadying the rhythm of your own life in this noisy world.
P.S. If you want to learn about the "One Book, One Story" contextual vocabulary series, which helps you efficiently boost your vocabulary and access high-quality ideas from around the world, you can check out this article for more details 👉 I Upgraded This Super Vocabulary Book
Thank you for reading. If you found this inspiring, please give it a like and share it. See you next time. 👋
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