I came up short in my 2008 efforts to read a book a week.  Every year I have the same goal – read a book a week.  Hitting or exceeding that number is not the point.  The point of this simple exercise in goal setting is establishing motivation to read.  The beauty is in the simplicity.  One.  You know when you are on track.  You know when you are off the pace.

Last year I read or listened to 40 books.  I got busy with other stuff and my reading got less time.  But the end of 2008 marked the completion of five years of practicing this simple success strategy.  Over that time period, I have read 256 books or 0.9846 books per week.  So while I missed my goal in the short term, over the longer term I am reading about one book a week.

Here are some strategies I plan on using in 2009 to raise my average to 1.0:

• More audio-books.  You can get a lot of “reading” done by listening.  This is especially effective when exercising.
• Find little blocks of time to read.  Get up 30 minutes earlier and read.  Listen to a book in your car on your way and from work.  Read when you’re waiting in a line.
• Read something you normally don’t read.  Personally, this means less business books and more fiction.

Tune in next year, same place.  I’ll report on my 6 year average which, hopefully, will be >1.0.