How I went from hating all things English to loving reading
And how your teenager can too
As some of your will know,
I went from someone who hated school,
Misbehaved,
Felt the furthest thing from academic,
(Especially when it came to English),
To someone who completed his masters and works in education.
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As I was sitting in Kyoto today reading,
(I am on a 2 week holiday in Japan),
I realised that 11-year-old Joel,
And 16-year-old Joel,
Would be completely bewildered at what they were seeing.
They would be thinking I have received a hefty bribe or someone was forcing me to read against my will.
Whilst perhaps the simplistic explanation is people grow up,
I don’t think this explains why reading is now a staple in my life.
I really believe the actual explanation is possibly one of the biggest incentives for behavioral change,
Especially in young people,
And therefore,
If this incentive can be utilised,
It will have a wide ranging positive impact on your teenager.
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Role Models
Put simply,
I started reading when I realised that such a high majority of the people I looked up to and wanted to be like ‘when I grow up’ were big readers.
(Unfortunately, my football skills were not sufficient to make realistically aim to emulate Frank Lampard).
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It seemed to me,
That all the most accomplished people in the world,
Ranging from politicians,
To entrepreneurs,
To religious figures,
Were big readers.
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Now I realise that not everyone aims to emulate these individuals,
And I didn’t necessarily want to be exactly like ‘Barack Obama,’
But I have always wanted to make a big impact in the world and ‘be someone.’
And all of these role models certainly were achieving this dream.
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I think every teenager wants to be the best version of themselves,
Which usually involves having a big impact,
Potentially earning a nice amount of money,
And being the type of person that other people look up to.
I think the big problem is the education system,
Amongst other things,
Beats this desire out of so many teenagers.
By putting them in a box,
Which makes them feel like these aspirations are out of reach.
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This is precisely why these role models were so important in my life.
They got me past the concern of ‘reading isn’t cool.’
Because I realised,
Probably subconsciously at the time,
The really cool people,
Are the people who have this big impact,
And the high majority of these people read.
So eventually,
And it wasn’t an overnight process,
Reading became something that I really value and feel like I owe a lot to.
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Finally, I would just like to shout out two huge names that were big ‘celebrity’ role models for me around the age of 16.
Many people will have heard of them,
But if you’re thinking about how you can get your teenagers to feel more motivated/ambitious/positive,
I would recommend trying to introduce them to these two individuals who were impactful for me at their age.
Gary Vaynerchuk.
And,
Tim Ferris.
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I hope everyone has a great week ahead,
Best wishes,
Joel