New Year's Resolution: Ignite Your Reading Motivation for 2025

I don’t know about you, but my mom is always telling me I should read. It’s not that I don’t like to read, but there are so many other things to balance in life: schoolwork, sports, time with friends and family, extracurriculars...I know as a girl with college aspirations and SATs around the corner, reading more is something I should do.

For a recent school assignment, I found a NY Times article about kids today and our decreased interest in reading. The article explained why kids no longer feel the need to read. Our parents escaped to other places and learned about the world through reading. However, we have the internet and endless access to information about the world and other people. Books are less necessary for us.

When my mom read the article she also understood why reading has less of an appeal to me than it did for her when she was my age. The article also gave my mom an idea about reading for reward. I’m not generally one to need a financial incentive to do something good for me, but the article inspired my mom to make me an offer that was hard to refuse. We both agreed that my reading more was a good idea. We also agreed it was hard for me to make time with my busy schedule. So, my mom offered to pay me to read 6 books before next summer ends. I must pick five classic literature books and then the last can be any book I choose. Each book I complete will earn me a small gift, and I will receive a bonus payment at the end for a “job” well done.

We shouldn’t need to be paid to do things that we know are good for us, but a reward is a great motive to give us the push we sometimes need. If you too want to read more and think an incentive might give you some needed reading motivation.