The formation of new habits

Reading is not only mechanical habit to swallow all new information, but it is the pleasure as well. We will lose the satisfaction for some time when we start reading fast. That is, we take up the development of new skill, which is not easy. You know it, if you have ever tried jogging, giving up eating sweets or learning foreign language.

At first we move forward because of passion and enthusiasm, which declines after facing regular, discipline requiring tasks. At the end we forget our engagement for a couple of days, and come back to our old habits.

You have to forget reading word-by-word, sub vocalization, regression etc. and everyday push yourself towards new goal. When you will learn using the potential of your eyes and brain, the page of the text will look completely different. You will see and understand much more, think faster and more receptive. On the other hand, you will face doubts and lack of self confidence at the beginning. It will require practice and experimentation. Some of you will lack creativity; others feel the fear of experimentation. The most will expect fast and effective results. Only knowing will make no improvement. Speed reading requires systematic and constant effort, while the skills are trained till the basic level.

It is similar to running. Knowing how to run or having short and irregular trainings only will make no superior runner out of you. At the best case, you will be just a bit faster than anyone, who does no jogging at all, but is this worth trying? If we start something, we have to continue to the end. Like any other skill, this requires practice. In particular, this sphere requires at least a couple of weeks and intensive training to see some results.

We spent millions of hours reading in the traditional way, thus, we have to spare some time to gain new habits. New connections in the brains have to be formed. In the illustration you can see the networks of neurons. Our thoughts, experiences, emotions, and habits are the connections of neurons. The more practice we do the stronger connections are formed.

Speed reading requires patient and lasting trainings. All the results are achieved with the hard work and they are individual depending on physiology and other characteristics.