I always think that why I started reading if I'm not a reader type of person who can sit for long with a book in his hand. Infact, I am a person who is very much responsive to the events happening in his surroundings. Whenever I don't find anything happening I get fidgety or you can say that I get fidgety when I'm bored. I ponder too much on trivial stuff which is really a waste of time actually. I love faffing or you can say that a bunch of people (including me) in my company push themselves to faff just to get relax or to steal a moment of entertainment from their busy/boring schedule.

So the question was that why I started reading? Once, I was talking from one of my colleagues and we shared (actually only he questioned and I answered) our views regarding our colleagues. When I responded to his question about many people surround, I wondered that I noticed so much about my colleagues and that too correct as per his feedback. He was surprised to see that being that observant, why I waste time in silly things and why I don’t do something meaningful. We discussed many more things and somehow we reached to an unanimous conclusion that I should learn how to step into other’s shoes. How to think as your counterpart in a conversation. I was told that one reason that I don't like reading books is that I am not able to step myself into author's shoes. But once I learn the art of align my thinking with other’s, I will learn a lot. I told him that I had read some books and liked them too like 'FIVE POINT SOMEONE'. But then I was made realized that I liked that book because that is a story of someone like me. For that book, I didn’t need not to derail my think to catch the author's mindset. And then I decided to start reading as much as I can. This will help me in multiple manners, first I will learn to step in other's (author's) shoes, and secondly I can spend my time in something fruitful rather than faffing and wondering all around. That was one of the main reasons of my starting reading. But still I have a long way to go as currently I am on only for story books/novels. I still need to learn how to read other books. But whatever I'm reading, I'm loving that.

Let's talk about a bit more about stepping into other's shoes. According to a research it was shown that Asians (precisely Chinese) are more skilled at understanding other people's perspectives, possibly because they live in a more "collectivist" society and this cultural difference affects the way we communicate. A study co-author Boaz Keysar says: "If we are aware of how we think differently, this can go a long way toward not allowing these differences to get in the way of reaching mutual understanding" These results were concluded from a study which is given below:

Simple study:

The study, though oversimplified compared to real life, was instructive. Keysar and his colleagues arranged two blocks on a table so participants could see both. However, a piece of cardboard bstructed the view of one block so a "director," sitting across from the participant, could only see one block.

When the director asked 20 American participants (none of Asian descent) to move a block, most were confused as to which block to move and did not take into account the director's perspective. Even though they could have deduced that, from the director's seat, only one block was on the table.

Most of the 20 Chinese participants, however, were not confused by the hidden block and knew exactly which block the director was referring to. While following directions was relatively simple for the Chinese, it took Americans twice as long to move a block.

"That strong, egocentric communication of Westerners was nonexistent when we looked at Chinese," Keysar said. "The Chinese were very much able to put themselves in the shoes of another when they were communicating."

I appeal everyone to learn to step into other's shoes. I am in the learning process and I think that for being successful one needs to master this art. All great men are great because they know how to step in their customer's shoes. By customer, I mean the user of your product and policies. If a government can't step in the shoes of its citizen then it's the siren of collapse of the nation. If a businessman can't step in the shoes of its customers/buyers then it will never succeed. If an author can't feel the nerve of the readers he can never be successful and there are many other examples... I found one of the ways of learning this art as reading and want to encourage everyone for this. If you can device any other way then please let me know.