Last week, I finished reading the longest book I’ve ever read.
It was 970 pages… and used a small font.
I say this because it’s something a younger me would always look out for and judge books by.
But, what I learned after having read this book is that those were awful, awful indicators as to whether or not a book should be read.
And what only added to my resistance of reading longer books with smaller fonts… was my goal of reading a certain number of books every year.
Knowing I was “5 books behind schedule” made me want to read short books with larger fonts so I could catch up… leading me to pick books based on superficial markers and not substance.
And so, no, I won’t reach my goal of reading 40 books this year… in fact, I’m going to end up being quite short of that.
But, it doesn’t matter. Because the whole point of goals is to give you a direction to drive towards… and I’d say, I’m driving towards what “40 books read this year” represents—much more so even than if I’d read a bunch of superficially chosen books and got to 45.
Don’t miss the forest for the trees.
P.s. The book I’m referring to above is Musashi—the classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Would recommend.