It’s January everyone! It’s time of year when everyone tries to find their word of the year, tries to frantically decide what their resolutions are, and goes extreme with healthy eating. (Things like KALE, and JUICE CLEANSE, and DETOX everything). At one point I think I tried all those things–I mean it’s a shiny new year!
This January has been a chance to ease back into things. I’ve cleaned a little and I’ve read a lot. In the spirit of doing things differently I’ve been reading a more non-fiction. (Stuff that would probably put me to sleep by the pool in August!) This has given me ideas of what to add into my 2019. Or even better, what to let go of in 2019!
First Book of the Year
One of the books I started reading the past couple of weeks is Essentialism by Greg McKeown. I’ve been listening to the audio book version. I chose the audio book because nonfiction tends to be easier for me if I can listen to it while my body is busy. Greg McKeown has a delightful British accent which makes for easy listening. I challenged myself to listen to a chapter a day. Today, I’ve almost finished the book–way before the end of the month!
I’ve gotten some great ideas–each chapter has been something that I listen to with my mind wide open for new things and they’ve certainly come in droves. I would highly recommend reading this book any time you want to think about some changes in your life. I believe that I will reread it again because I’m sure I haven’t been able to soak in all the goodness in one reading.
Favorite Part
My favorite takeaway from the book was the way they approached their children’s addiction to screen time. They wanted to do something different because not only were their children resistant to listening about turning their attention to something with more long term benefits, they found themselves policing their children to the point that they weren’t getting their essential things done.
They gave their children 10 tokens. Each token was worth a 1/2 hour of screen time or $.50 at the end of the week. If they read a book they received another token. Quite soon, their children were not only using screens less, their reading was up and all with minimal policing from the parents.
This is a completely GENIUS idea which I plan to implement right away. This isn’t the only great idea in this book, but its my favorite for this read-through. I’ll write more soon about my goals that I’ve decided on for 2019. It might not be until February because I certainly plan to take my time.
Share Your Thoughts
What about you? Do you have favorite books that you reread during certain parts of the year? What inspires you to make goals and follow through with them? Do you have a Word of the year?
I only have a comment on the books I’m reading. My 10 year old started reading the Keepers of the Lost Cities series by Messenger. He read it so fast I thought I maybe I should read it, too. My 13 year old also has jumped on this series. So now we are all 3 reading them.
That’s awesome! It actually sounds like an interesting series! <3