I was pretty excited about this prompt. I think it’s because I love setting goals. I love having to-do lists and setting tasks to complete. Which is why I love goals as well. Whether I accomplish those goals is a different story altogether. It however doesn’t change the fact that I like setting goals and milestones to accomplish.
Speaking of goals, before I started writing this, I went to check my goals of last year which contains my reading goals, and I saw it there boldly written, “Read 100 books this year and at least 24 self-help books.” I nearly bursted into laughter when I read it because that’s the reason why you should set feasible goals.
I mean, I didn’t know that I was going to be in a book slump for nearly five months of this year, and I also forgot that this year would be one of my wildest academic years because I had a goal to achieve and any free time I had from studying was to do even more intense study.
So, it is with heavy heart that I announce that my “well-planned” reading goal couldn’t come to fruition. This is because I read just about 34 books this entire year, and no, there were no self-help books included. I understand the need to get more intellectual and *motivated,” which was why I decided to spice up my usual fiction novel reading with the self-care ones. Sadly, I couldn’t imagine the little time I had from studying being spent on something that my reality is still warped in. Best to take my mind off my reality with books that let me dream.
Which is why I’m sceptical about setting any more reading milestones. Who knows what could happen? I could just take it as it goes and see what happens, right?
Wrong!!!
I don’t want to just take it as it comes. Having a milestone that I can achieve keeps me grounded. Through the book slumps, creative droughts, and all those other fancy names for inability to pick up a book to read, a reading goal or milestone would keep books as a whole at the back of my mind. It doesn’t have to be perfectly followed, but at least there’s a goal and vision in sight.
The biggest hindrance to this milestone I’m about to set is my University education. You guys, my Faculty isn’t playing when it comes to acing every test and exams, and I can only do that by going the extra mile with covering textbooks, reading court cases and judgements dispersed, attending court sessions and all those stuff a simple girl like me shouldn’t be doing. So, I won’t lie, it is going to be hard, and just the thought of all the work ahead of me this holiday and straight into the new years and beyond is enough to destabilise me.
However, will this stop me from setting my milestone?
Never!
So from the question posed by #mondaybookprompt, what exactly is my reading milestone for 2025? And the answer is – the same as last year. I feel like there’s no need to set a new milestone when I couldn’t even accomplish the last one. Or better still, I’m going to make it 50 books instead of 100. Yeah, that sounds nice since I didn’t reach the 50 book mark this year. It’ll be better to do this, so that when I reach and surpass this milestone, hopefully, I’ll feel more satisfied.
To be honest, I think the best way to do that is to make a list of 50 concrete books I’d like to read and just tick them off as I go. Maybe one book a week, and since we have 54 weeks in a year, it’ll be feasible enough to achieve. It takes me not more than a day to read a book on a normal occasion, but giving myself this much room will put me at ease and take a bit of the pressure off.
I really want to get this right, so I think I would solicit the help of @oluchi31, @teknon, @omokhafue, and my other book-loving girlies to tell me the best way to meet this goal. Really proud of them, by the way. They’ve read like ten times more than I did when it comes to novels this year, which basically makes them my mentors for 2025, lol. But I’ll appreciate suggestions from anyone on how to achieve my reading milestone. Thank you!
Jhymi🖤
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Other images screenshot from my e-library.
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