Truth In Humor

Get Into A Reading Rhythm

Many people ask me how do I manage to get through so many books and my response is that I have a reading routine and rhythm. I'll share my recipe with you. Try this for one month and see how much progress you make. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. A sitcom generally airs for a half of an hour at a time with dramas and soap operas airing for an hour or more. Instead of watching the sitcoms or drama programs, turn the television off and use the time to read. That's right......READ.  Let's say that you watch three sitcoms for a half of an hour each. Choose three books that you are currently reading or would like to read. Read each book for a half of an hour each (the same time you would have spent watching the sitcoms). Set a timer if you need to in order to keep you on track. At the end of the thirty minutes, change to the next book and begin reading it and at the end of that thirty minutes, move to the third book. If you do this once a day for a month, you will be absolutely amazed at the number of books you will complete in that time and ultimately in a year. It's not that we don't have the time to read, it's more like we don't TAKE/MAKE the time to read. If television is not your thing and you spend an inordinate amount of time on the computer or on social networks, the same recipe will apply; just insert the computer in the blank where I have TV above. In fact any other time consuming activity will work to fill in the blank. In other words, I am asking you to substitute reading for one of the other activities. I cannot express the myriad benefits of you doing this here in this post. If you cannot do the ninety minutes, start off with thirty minutes and work your way up. Give up one sitcom to read a few chapters in a good book. Research says that anything done for thirty days becomes a habit (good or bad), so give it a try and watch how quickly you increase the number of books you have read in a week, month, and year's time. Happy Reading! Something to critically think about. I invite you to download for free The Reading Circle App on Itunes, Google-Play, or Amazon.  I also invite you to listen to The Reading Circle each Saturday morning beginning at 6 a.m. ET on gobrave.org and locally in northern NJ on WP88.7 FM. Lastly, I invite you to follow me on Twitter @thinkcritical01.  

Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Quiet?

A young man accepted into one of the more prestigious performing arts high schools in the city goes there for the first couple of months and opts to transfer to one of the more challenging schools in the city. A neighbor who moves to a calmer more stable community stays there for a couple of months and moves back to the yelling, hollering, blaring of sirens and the screeching of tires in her old neighborhood. A sixth grade student is given a once in a lifetime opportunity to attend one of the top performing middle schools in the city, stays there for a month and chooses to come back to one of the lowest performing schools in the city. In all three of these instances, when asked why did you come back or why did you make that decision, the individuals said that "It was too quiet there." 

Now, I don't know about you, but my mind struggles to process that logic. You've left a chaotic situation for a more stable and calm place and then return to the chaos because the calm and stable is too quiet? I can't get enough peace and quiet and there are those who obtain it and then go back to the chaos. If this makes sense to you, please help me out in your feedback in the commentary section. 

A couple of weeks ago, my pastor preached a sermon titled A Question For Those Who Are Comfortable In Chaos and it centered on accepting dysfunction as a way of life or for too many as the only way of life. We must not and cannot accept dysfunction in our lives. That is not to say that things won't be dysfunctional, it is to say however, that we must always be striving to make functional what is dysfunctional. In other words, we must always be moving towards fixing or correcting what is broken or incorrect. I am truly perplexed as to how one could get to the place where so many others would love to be and then go back to the place where so many would love to get out of with the rationale of it being too quiet. You get to the mountain top and then come back into a valley that you know is chaotic, not to fix the chaos, but to join back with the noise. What they are saying is I am not happy unless I am hearing the fighting, the screaming, the cursing, the gunshots, etc. etc. etc., so therefore I will leave the quiet place and go back to that. To go back to fix the chaos is one thing; to go back to join in it and be a part of it is another. All three of the scenarios in the opening of the post are true with no names mentioned to protect the afflicted.  

For this critical thinker, leaving a place that is quiet to go back to a place filled with chaos because of the former being "too quiet," is something to critically think about. I invite you to hear me live on Saturday mornings as the host of The Reading Circle on gobrave.org and to follow me on Twitter @thinkcritical01. 

Parents, We Must Do Better

Click here to listen to Kumari's interview about Parenting

Kumari Ghafoor-Davis appeared on The Reading Circle with Marc Medley this morning and talked about her book Real Talk: Ten Parenting Strategies to Raise Confident Successful Children. It is an interview that everyone particularly parents and those who intend to be parents need to hear. As parents we must take our jobs seriously and do better. 

Kumari, affectionately known by her clients and their children as Coach Kumari, is a professional parenting coach based in New Jersey. She is frequently commissioned to work with parents of school-age children on topics ranging from first day jitters to dating for pre-teens.She speaks at several events annually, and her writing can be found on EmpoweringParents.com, NJFamilies.com as well as featured stories on her daily online newspaper CoachKumari.com.

Kumari definitely gives us something to critically think about. I invite you to listen to me live each Saturday at 6 a.m. ET as host of The Reading Circle on gobrave.org and I also invite you to follow me on Twitter @thinkcritical01.