Airton Zanon

I'm not usually the kind of person that goes to twitter to brag or to talk about my personal accomplishments.

Usually I just talk about tech, projects or some funny (not that funny) jokes or anecdotes.

But today I saw the Goodreads 2022 Year in Books and I'd like to share this personal accomplishment that, for me, was really meaningful.

I've never been the kind of person that reads a lot, never had this routine of reading a book before bed or when going to the beach or ... well, I actually never had this interest, it was something that, for me, was boring, like studying for an exam. I just used to read development books, but it used to be one per year or even less.

2021 came and, with some inspiration from my wife, I started reading a book that was a collection of crime stories (kinda like Arthur Conan Doyle), that was a nice ride, and then, I just read another book, so 2 in total.

Now, 2022. I started with a goal of reading at least 2 pages before bed.

That was a fairly easy goal, but even though it was easy something bugged me a lot, that was, if I read 10 pages yesterday, I should read at least 10 today. But with this "excuse" I started procrastinating a lot on my readings because if I wasn't in the mood of reading at least 10 pages or, too tired and knew that I would read a maximum of 5, I would just skip that day.

Something that changed was, my mindset, I forgot about the "at least 2 pages rule" and started reading as much as I was comfortable with.

It might sound so easy, like "oh, but this is obvious Airton", well, for me that was a mindblowing move.

With this new mindset, I started reading more often and turns out that I started to read more as well. Fiction started to be adventurous, biografies started to be interesting, tech related books started to be less in my pipeline, and I started to read more books regarding management and behaviour.

In the end of the year I could see that I read 12 books. That, for me, was incredible.

Here's the list of books that I've read in 2022, not in any particular order:

1. The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl
2. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
3. Mask Off: Masculinity Redefined by J.J. Bola
4. The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change your Life and Achieve Real Happiness by Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga
5. The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures by Erin Meyer
6. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
7. Tell Me How I'm Doing: A Fable about the Importance of Giving Feedback by Richard L. Williams
8. Non Violent Communication A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg
9. Resilient Management by Lara Hogan
10. The Coffee Saga by Robin de Graaf
11. In Defence of Open Society by George Soros
12. Psychedelic Cannabis: Therapeutic Methods and Unique Blends to Treat Trauma and Transform Consciousness by Daniel McQueen

I don't think that reading makes people smarter than others, but it's an active way of consuming content, it's a quiet moment, it's you and your mind, and nowadays, in this world that has too much of a noise, one can benefit from the quieteness.

I also should mention and thank my wife on helping me keeping this habit, it was really nice to have her support on this.

This is more a note for my future self than a post that helps others, consistancy is better than quantity in a time frame. Well, this can go for anything in life, so I shall try to apply this to other parts of my life as well.