Read to Build a Great Career

Often people brag about, with a certain pride, how they have not touched books post their study days/college. Whenever I hear this I can not help but laugh at their poverty of thought. What people don’t realise is that this is detrimental to their growth as not reading enough is like putting a stop to our own growth as an individual. This happens because people fail to realise the benefits of reading. Due to their aversion to reading, they miss out on the significant amount of benefits that reading has. Normally we treat reading as a hobby or as something that is for enjoyment however we fail to realise that reading can help us not only in our personal life but in our professional life.

Here are some compelling reasons how reading helps you in your professional career:

1. Makes You Better Leader

Readers have a strong sense of empathy and are able to connect better with other people. This ability to relate to other people by placing yourself in their shoes is a trait of a good leader. It increases IQ and EQ. Reading makes you an effective communicator which allows you to put forwards your thought effectively to impress and influence people. Reading provides stimulus for new thinking which leads to new ideas that can open new opportunities. It increases creativity along with focus and concentration.

2. Improves Decision Making

We make hundreds of decisions every day from clothes to wear to food to eat. However, apart from these mundane and low-impact decisions (some may argue otherwise) we also take multiple decision in our workplace, related to our work, that has a wider impact not only on us but on others involved as well. Any hasty or ill-informed decision can have a negative impact on the outcomes. Reading helps to process the information better and equips us to deal with ambiguity comfortably. It improves our decision-making by cutting down on the need to make snap decisions, creates a process to infer the information better, and avoid irrational judgments.

3. Enhances Analytical Skills

Reading is to the brain what expertise is to the body. It stimulates the analytical part of our brain, makes us think more, expands our horizon, helps us evolve as a person more so can even provide transformative experiences. Reading enhances our knowledge and it helps us to see patterns, analyze what we read, critic it meaningfully. These critical skills development aids in professional life as well. As we improve our analytical skills we become more efficient and are able to add more value to the work we do.

4. Expands Vocabulary

While reading we encounter new words. More words that we are exposed to inevitably find their way into our everyday vocabulary. We also learn how to use the words in a more effective way. It makes our communication rich and meaningful. Being articulate and well-spoken builds self-confidence and does wonders in all walks of life.

5. Strengthen Writing Skills

Writing skills matters in the workplace as most of the communication is in written form. It is imperative that you should be able to write well-articulated communication. Writing skill is an asset as it helps you to communicate yourself in an efficient and effective way. Better writing skills go hand in hand with the expansion of vocabulary. The more we read more strong our writing becomes.

6. Makes You Proactive

Improved concentration, reduced stress, high EQ, and IQ helps us to become a better version of ourselves. We are able to think and analyze better. This all leads us to become more proactive in our approach. We do not waste time on things that do not warrant our attention instead we are able to identify the tasks that need our attention.

7. Reduces Stress

Work pressure can lead to too much stress at the workplace. Moreover, there is every chance that you will bring that stress at home to your family and personal life. Stress can compromise how we perform at the workplace, it can make us sick and can even kill us. It is important to take care of your health both physical and mental. Reading is good for your mental health and has been shown to reduce stress by up to 68%. Whenever you feel stressed out it is a good idea to pick up ur favourite book and lose yourself to it. You will be able to better tackle the problems at the workplace with a stress-free mind.

Reading is underrated because people are unaware of how to incorporate reading into their day-to-day life. With some consistent effort and willingness, reading can bring transformation in life.

Keep Reading, Keep Living!