It can sometimes be challenging to understand why reading is important. However, many of the most successful business people suggest that reading is one of the primary keys to their success.
Warren Buffett is quoted as saying, “Read 500 pages every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will.”
Reading is so important because it helps us understand the words on a page and forms the foundation of our ability to function properly in our fast-paced world.
Reading skills open up your mind to new possibilities, make you a creative thinker, can help you relax and discover new worlds and new words.
Reading also helps us to think outside of the box, increases our vocabulary, enables us to perform better in our jobs, and helps us in social settings by increasing our ability to communicate more effectively.
Below we outline nine key reasons why reading is important.
What Are the Main Benefits and Importance of Reading?
The truth is that it’s never too early to start reading. If you are a parent with children who are in school or have not yet learned the importance of reading, you can take them on this journey with you.
When your children learn to read, encourage them to read topics and information to help them tackle life issues that will evidently arise later on in life. It is important to help them understand that education and comprehension are essential for excelling in life.
So let’s get to it – 9 reasons why reading is essential.
1. Reading gives you the ability to learn new skills
As an adult, learning new skills is vital to your personal and workplace growth and success. When you read extensively, your vocabulary is expanded, and we can increase your knowledge base.
Learning new skills enables you to increase your awareness of self and life. An example of learning a new skill could be learning a new language.
2. Reading Helps you in Social Settings and Boosts Your Confidence
Reading is important as it gives you the ability to extend your vocabulary and gives you something to talk about and share with friends, family, and colleagues. This, in turn, increases your ability to socialize and also boosts your confidence.
If you think about it, a desire to read often leads many people to join forums and book clubs. This allows them to meet new people and interact with people who also share their interests.
Related: 8 Strategic Ways to Keep Moving Forward and Progress in Life
3. Reading Helps The Brain Work Harder and Better
Science shows that when we read, it has a genuine impact on our brains. The brain has the ability to be rewired, and it also has the capability of growing and becoming more advanced or essentially improving and getting better.
Processing what you are reading helps improve the neurons, as they engage in transmitting the information. This is part of the learning process, and science proves that the benefits of reading occur long after you have stopped reading.
4. Reading Makes you More Empathetic Towards Others
Reading is important because it has the ability to make you a more empathetic person. This benefit is supported by research. For instance, in a study conducted in the Netherlands, researchers observed that people who were emotionally engrossed by a work of fiction experienced an increase in empathy.
This occurs because when you read a good story, you feel the pain and emotions of what the characters are going through. In turn, this helps you become more emotionally aware of how different obstacles or situations affect different people, which builds your level of empathy over time.
Related: 15 Ways to Start a Conversation Successfully without Being Awkward
5. Reading Can Provide You With a Greater Perspective
Another importance of reading is that it helps you build a greater perspective of the world and others. When we read, it enables us to get outside of our own bubble and get a feel for a different world that’s outside of our own.
Reading also allows us to live vicariously through the lives of others without leaving our comfort zone. It provides us with a new perspective without having to travel. It’s an opportunity to experience new things without even leaving your home. A good book will transport your mind to a world that you never knew existed.
6. Reading Enhances Social Problem Solving Skills
Another reason why reading is important is that it allows us to develop our problem-solving skills. Extensive readers have the ability to see things from different perspectives and have the ability to think outside of the box.
This helps when collaborating with colleagues or friends at school who are all seeking to solve the same problem, yet all have different perspectives on how the task should be completed.
Related: How to Develop an Eagerness to Learn in 13 Easy to Follow Steps
7. Readers are Great Leaders
It is commonly known that almost all great leaders are avid readers. One reason they are able to portray wisdom and a strong problem-solving ability is that they have a habit of reading.
For centuries, reading has been a great source of new ideas, inspiration, imagination, and growth. Forming a habit of reading is valuable to one’s personality growth and results in long-lasting benefits.
If you desire to one day become a leader, then you should become a reader. This will help with your decisions in the boardroom and help develop and sharpen your memory, increase your confidence, imagination, and make you more productive over time.
8. Reading Can Help You Relax and De-stress
Have you ever heard of the saying, “the more you read, the more places you go?” One of the reasons why reading is so important is that it opens you up to a world of different cultures and places. This, in turn, can help you de-stress as you shift your attention away from the current issues in your daily life.
A study showed that reading could reduce stress by 68%. The study showed that reading works faster and better than other relaxation methods like drinking a cup of tea or listening to music.
Reading is an essential part of self-care for some people. It provides an opportunity to have some ‘me’ time and release the tension of the day. There are few things better than curling up on the couch with a good book to read or taking a nice long bath to unwind.
Related: How to Have a Self-Care Day in Simple Steps: Make a Plan Today
9. Reading Improves Focus and Concentration
We live in a fast-paced internet-focused world where our attention gets pulled in different directions when we log on to our computer or phone.
Within a moment, the average individual will divide their time between chatting with people, entertaining their children, working on a task, checking their email, and scrolling through social media.
This multitasking behavior can often trigger a degree of stress and also has the ability to lower our level of productivity.
However, when you read a book, the rest of the world goes quiet as you focus on what you are reading and allow yourself to escape into the words on the page that you are reading.
A good book trains your brain to focus and concentrate as you lose yourself in the book’s details.
A great tip is to read for 20-25 minutes before work or school. This can help you be more focused and maintain a higher concentration level throughout the day.
Start Young and Stay Consistent with It
It is incredibly important to begin reading from a young age. If you were raised in a home where your parents didn’t focus on the importance of learning to read extensively, then this is something that you can implement in your life and choose to pass on to your own children one day.
Reading enables you to learn new words, improve your memory, increase your imagination, gain a better perspective, become more empathetic, be a better leader, improve your writing and communication skills.
The benefits of reading are endless and reading books that focus on learning a new skill will help you advance at school or in life.
Overall, reading is a fun and benefit-packed experience. Therefore, understanding the reasons why reading is so important will encourage and motivate you to begin reading extensively on topics that will sharpen your knowledge base.
When we learn to read books that will allow us to focus on improving life skills, as adults, we will be better equipped to make sound decisions when it comes to our jobs and raising our children.
