Stop Setting Reading Goals

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In our podcast episode this week, I argued that reading without a goal is the secret sauce to becoming an exceptional reader. And as I was putting together some ideas for this week’s column, I re-read one of my favourite books: Mastery by George Leonard. It’s a tiny book (you can read it in an afternoon), but even after reading it for the 5^th time, I’ve yet to suck out all the wisdom in it. So, in this letter, I’d love to share a recent idea I got from re-reading a favourite.

The core idea in Mastery is that ideally, the path towards mastering something should contain no goals, no cravings for the next level, nor ecstatic highs from hitting a new record. Instead, the highest state of practice is to love the practice itself, and any progress/achievement should hit us as a pleasant surprise.

However, this is not how we often think of progress. We like to see progress as an endless series of climaxes and peak experiences. We wish to wake up to the sounds of champagne corks popping out of the bottle every morning. But if we ever encounter a mundane day with no apparent progress, we’ll either quit (the dabbler), scramble for a way to claw back a sense of achievement (the obsessive) or stay at our current skill level forever (the hacker). But most of us are not aware that there’s a fourth path that’s available to us: the path of the master.

The defining trait of a master is their relationship with what George Leonard called the plateau. The plateau is a mundane day at work with no signs of a promotion. It’s a week of collecting bruises without progress in martial arts. And, for readers, it’s the resistance whenever you commit to a big reading project. It’s the frustration whenever you struggle to understand a concept, and it’s the same slow ass reading speed you’ve inherited from junior high.

When most people hit a reading plateau, they start to question their reading techniques and practices. Maybe they need to add another hour to their daily goal. Maybe they need a new note-taking system, or maybe they need to buy another book to stop stagnating. Pause! Says the master. The trick here is to take a deep breath and realise that you’re exactly where you should be. If you want to make reading and learning a part of your life in the long run, then periods of reading for the sake of it without any progress in comprehension, speed or volume are not a bug, but a feature.

“The real juice of life”, Leonard writes, “is to be found not nearly so much in the products of our efforts as in the process of living itself”.

Even though what got us into reading might be an ambitious reading goal, those who keep the habit are usually content with seeing reading as a mundane activity, just like eating and drinking. Eventually, if we’re committed to loving the plateau, the old, frenzied love for books will be replaced by a quiet confidence that steadies the mind to the page itself. We’ll routinely read for long stretches without the urge to escape the seat. We’ll start to appreciate the magic of words and the rhetorical effects of convincing arguments up close.

In a sense, there’s no ultimate reading goal or an optimal reading technique because the journey is endless. One day, the old fantasies of reading fast, scaling thick books and becoming the smartest person in the room will all vanish. What you’re left with is a simple, quiet and steady sense that now you’re on the path of mastering a fundamental skill that makes you human. And now, you’re free to apply this journey to read whatever fascinates you.

Yes, you’ll still feel resistance whenever you sit down to read.

Yes, you’ll still get frustrated when you wrestle with new ideas.

Yes, your reading speed won’t change that much.

But now, the old goals and impossible standards will no longer hold you hostage. Instead, you'll derive joy from the journey of mastery itself, and this is when the path of lifelong learning truly opens up to you.

Until next week

Robin