I’m writing about reading goals today. “Wait!” you might be thinking. Setting reading goals is a January thing, a New Year’s resolution type of thing. It’s May. Who sets reading goals in May? The answer is that I hope you will.
This is the perfect time to set a reading goal for the rest of the year. Think about it – the weather is getting nicer, the major holidays are over, and the school year is winding down. You may be deciding that between lingering COVID strains, high gas prices, and economic volatility, planning some big vacation is not looking likely. Or maybe your brain just needs a little escape from all of those things, plus the regular stresses of life. All of those things make it a perfect time to read.
Goals have targets for completion. Without specified completion dates, goals can be so vague and amorphous that they never get achieved. Smart goals are described as those which are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound or with a time deadline. Even if you never learned that set of guidelines about goals formally, it’s something we all instinctually know on some level.
Deadlines and obligations are everywhere. They are the due dates of the bills and payment obligations in your life, the timelines of things you must complete for work, and the realities of all the personal projects that fill your world. When we attach a goal or deadline to reading, it can have the effect of putting negative pressure and unhappy connotations onto an activity that should make you feel relaxed and or other good things.
If you set a reading goal that is too grandiose, reading so fast you don’t enjoy what you read, or just giving up on it entirely. You don’t want to let it become just another deadline or something you simply have to get through to check off your “to-do” list.
Rather than reading to just check off another goal, you should be reading for the right reasons. Read to meet wonderful characters and experience great stories. Read to escape the stress of your everyday life for a little while. Read to use your imagination and experience places you’ve never been. Read for fun. 
Check out these prize packages!
Because you’re reading this blog post you’re going to get a chance to enter the newest From In Here giveaway before it’s announced on social media. It’s starting next Monday, May 9, 2022.
You can win an Amazon Alexa device and a Kindle Fire, along with 6 e-books from a variety of genres. There will be one grand prize winner who receives the entire gift package. One first prize winner will receive the Alexa plus 3 e-books from genres of their choice, and the one-second prize winner will receive a Kindle plus 3 e-books from genres of their choice. Additional winners will be chosen to win 3, 2, or 1 e-book from genres of their choice.
There are a couple of ways you can enter. Here’s how it works;
- Email me at frominhere@gmail.com and tell me something about you’re reading goals for the rest of the year. Doing this earns you 5 entries.
- Once the contest is announced publicly, Like, Comment, and Share the graphic about it on social media. Each time you do so, you get one additional entry into the contest.
- Each Monday between now and June 15, there will be 6 numbered books hidden on the website. For each that you find, send a screenshot or written description to frominhere@gmail.com. You get an entry for each book you find. If you find all 6 books in a week, you get an extra 15 entries.
That’s it. Nice and easy. This contest will officially start next Monday, May 9, 2022 and end at midnight on June 15th, 2022. But, you can use entry method Number 1 to get your first entry in now!
If you have any questions, please email me at frominhere@gmail.com. Also, please contact me with any comments about this week’s blog post, because you may find yourself rewarded in next week’s newsletter. Good luck if you’re entering the contest, and I hope you’ll be reading through the rest of the year.