Every year like a dutiful participant in capitalistic hustle culture, I create an overwhelming and unrealistic list of goals that are neither based in any historical data or tied to any intentional impact. The act of creating the goal (and the accompanying habit trackers, posters, lists, stickers, etc that supposedly support the goal) is the goal. Rebecca returned from a 5 day silent meditation retreat earlier this year and resoundingly declared she no longer believes in goals; because I am in awe of anyone who can meditate for more than 15 minutes, let alone 5 days, I have begun to question my belief in, and desperate attachment to, goals. One of the goals I’ve been thinking a lot about is my reading goals. Since I was young I’ve been a voracious reader. I created a whole hideout in the basement of my childhood home behind the furnace where I stacked blankets and pillows and snacks and books. I spent many hours every summer in that reading nook. I was first introduced to the concept of reading goals when they were associated with pizza parties in grade school. As an English Lit major in my undergrad, reading very quickly digressed from 2 parts joy and 1 part pizza party into all parts chore and no parts happiness.
Over the years my reading goals became moralistic and punishing. The more I read the less I engaged in social media and screens and television and “bad” entertainment. I will never admit to brief visits to “not like other girls” territory but I guess if it walks like a duck. I would avoid 500+ page books because they would “only count as one”, and avoid anything under 100 because “you can’t really count that as one”. I have more than 3 Goodreads accounts. “Have you ever thought of getting a Kindle?” “I could never, I just love the feel of a real book.” January of this year I decided that my reading goal was 52 books. 1 book per week. I landed on this goal through a very scientific method of seeing a girl on TikTok say she read 52 books in 2023 and she was really smug about it and that sounded like a direct challenge. (I am a connoisseur of “(Number) (Time Period) Challenge”.) By week 2 I was already behind by 1, and by week 5 I could catch up if I just read 2 books per week and by March I didn’t even feel like reading anymore because it was all just too stressful. Obviously I couldn’t amend my goal because I had made an annual goal so I’ll just start again in 2025.
And then Rebecca said she didn’t believe in goals anymore so I decided I didn’t believe in goals anymore and I just started reading the things I wanted to read. I let the Libby holds expire when the topic didn’t feel interesting anymore (most of Q2 was spent in the “self help” realm of reading and while I love a good self help book I am relieved to not feel the pressure of helping myself through books right now). I deleted the TikTok folder with 932 saved posts of books I’m never going to read, or maybe I am, but this folder is not helpful to me! Also - I started stopping reading books I was not enjoying. I have never been a “DNF-er”. I have grinded through hours of unenjoyable reading material because I’m not a quitter! Pushing through bad writing shows resiliency! and a thousand other nonsensical ideas about reading. So, here I am 9 months into the year and I’ve read a bunch of books and the number is irrelevant (23) and I am a proud Kindle owner and my Libby backlog is (almost) cleared and most importantly reading feels joyful for the first time in a long time! Because I’m no longer focused solely on the goal. I’m focused on what the point of the goal is. When I told myself I wanted to read more this year, the intended impact was for me to reconnect with my creativity and imagination; to ignite the pieces of my brain that are only on fire when I’m glued to the pages of a book; and to feel more peace and ease. None of those impacts come from the number of books I read.
While I’m not sure I’m ready to throw goals out the window completely, whether in my personal life or in my business, I am ready to: 1) be more discerning about the purpose of said goals 2) evaluate goals at regular intervals and determine whether they are moving me closer to or further away from my ultimate impact and 3) abandon goals with no regret or remorse if and when it is determined that they are no longer serving me! (This is the blog paragraph that makes it business related! Do these things with your business goals!)
So in conclusion: Audiobooks are books. Graphic novels are books. Comic books are books. Reading on a Kindle is reading! Smut and romantasy and sci fi and historical fiction and post apocalyptic narratives are all valid genres! (I do draw the line at 2nd person POV though because that is very confusing.) You’re allowed to like books everyone else hates and hate books everyone else likes. You are allowed - nay, encouraged - to stop reading books you don’t like. If you’re like me and the first hint of an “accidental pregnancy” or “female hero who doesn’t know her true power until a man shows her” trope makes you want to throw the book across the room, check out my 2024 so far reading list below! 
Xoxo, Sarah 
