Literate Habits, Hearts & Communities

I believe a lived well-read and well-written is a life well-lived.

As a child, I devoured books and stories, vicariously living through the characters I met in the pages of a book. As a teenager, I wrote them, using writing as a way to work through the turbulence of adolescence. As an adult, I live them and feel the power these lived stories have to shape my identity.

But the intensity of my reading and writing life has waxed and waned over the years depending on the season of actual life that I’m in. 

When I first started setting goals for my reading life, I focused on the numbers, striving to read a particular set number of books per year. From there, I shifted to thinking about the quality of those books and my goals shifted to reading across genres and prioritizing books written by BIPOC authors. Currently, my goals focus on sharing my reading life with others, reviewing the books I read in a public space. 

When I began setting goals for my writing life, it was to triumph over a grand accomplishment: to publish an article and write a book. My goals now? I focus on showing up to the page every single day so that writing can not only help me achieve a task, but achieve well-being, too. 

Many adult readers do not set explicit goals for their reading and writing lives. Chances are we consistently read books of our own choosing that are at an independent reading level written on topics that we enjoy and want to read about in a space that is suitable to our reading preferences. Adult writers typically write in functional ways that support their daily living or in creative ways that fuel their artistic side, but only if we choose to do so. Quite simply, we read and write because it makes us happy. 

Yet, choosing personally meaningful goals can bring renewed energy to our reading and writing lives. 

Perhaps you want to slow your reading pace to ensure you deeply understand your reading. Maybe you want to start carrying a notebook around to capture life’s moments. Maybe you want to start a reading notebook so you can share your reading reviews in a public space. Or maybe you have grand dreams to publish your very own book. 

Choosing goals can feel a lot like walking into a bakery. There are rows of options of all different kinds and flavors, each beckoning you in their own sweet way, leaving you with a challenging decision: What do I choose? Do I choose the familiar sugar cookie I know and love to stay in my comfort zone? Do I choose the chocolate cake the store is most known for and follow the crowd? Or do I choose the sugar-free option I think is better for me, even though I don’t really want it? 

I don’t know about you, but I always feel like I could use a bit of guidance in making those indulgent decisions and the same goes for setting personal reading and writing goals, too. 

That’s why I created the Habits-Hearts-Communities framework to help adults choose meaningful goals in their reading and writing lives so they can actually have an impact on their actual lives. You’ll find a full description of the framework and much, much more in my book, titled Leading Literate Lives: Habits and Mindsets for Reimagining Classroom Practice.