I started writing because people told me it was beneficial to cultivate an online presence with a blog. At first, blogging felt like work. But the more I wrote the more I began to enjoy it and recognize its incredible benefits.
Now I write every single day. I usually try to follow aspects of the artists way and write as soon as I wake up as well as just before I go to sleep. When I feel like others can derive value from what I write, I publish it on my blog. It typically ends up being a 50-50 split between what I choose to publish vs. file away internally. Ironically, maintaining a blog is now merely a positive externality of something I enjoy.
The reason I have grown to love writing is because I’ve found that it inspires an exploratory thought process thats effectiveness is hard to emulate anywhere else. Writing forces me to really think, organize my thoughts, and ask difficult questions. In the process, I find myself riffing on thoughts I may have never encountered or considered questioning. I consider the exploratory thought process writing provokes akin to the serendipitous experience of browsing the web. As we start to explore, we see things that interest us along the way. We end up wondering down a path of discovery not sure how we got there, but often happy that we did. In both cases, the process facilitates serendipitous discovery taking the form of new learnings, thoughts, and understanding.
In my own life, habitual writing has inspired new ideas, direction, questions, insight, and clarity. In an environment increasingly characterized by digital stimulation and immediate gratification, this has helped me to distance myself from reactionary habits and live more intentionally.
I highly recommend writing everyday for an entire week if you’ve never tried. Then of course, reflecting and writing whether there was any value there.
