If You Seek Intellectual Growth and Fulfillment then Stop Binding All Your Work to Money — Create for Joy
A Thank You Note to Darius Foroux
I was meandering aimlessly
Now and then by a stroke of serendipity, you come across people who positively transform you (often unknowingly). Suddenly the pieces of the obscure puzzle fall into place, they fit together and you get what you have been vaguely searching for in the dark.
This post is about that.
‘Writing’ was never my dream. I dreamt of being an engineer.
I never studied or trained to be one. I was never into writing. It was not something that I actively pursued in school or college. I was fairly good at it and managed to ace my writing assignments. A large part of my childhood was instead spent reading books across genres and even encyclopedias.
The urge to write and share my views came upon me when I started working as a business systems analyst. I felt that I had something worthwhile to share with the others. My content revolved around my area of specialization. The stories were best practices, lessons, predictable obstacles, and how to overcome them. I wrote about actual situations, things that readers can relate to.
Writing for the sake of educating was fun. I looked forward to sharing my experience and helping others. There was no compulsion or a content calendar to stick to. The motivation was intrinsic. I wrote whenever I felt and sent it across to the publisher.
And there was no money involved in all this. My full-time job paid my bills.
I was not writing to build a career, I was sharing insights. Spreading the love.
When I look back, it all seems haphazard, directionless, and frivolous. I think I never calmed my monkey mind to hear and see the signs, to listen to what my inner conscience was directing at.
Why was I going back to writing again and again?
And then something changed
The same routine at work was boring. There was no excitement. Things were stifling. 50% of my work involved firefighting. It was all reactive and unpredictable.
I had even spent a few days not going to work. Then I realized no matter how boring I needed that physical interaction. The social connection was crucial to maintaining my sanity and state of well-being.
Work was not bad and people were nice too. The problem was elsewhere. I was missing intellectual growth.
There was a constant itch for mental stimulation, some option to feed my brain with new information, learn new skills, and ideas, and not keep on doing things that I could do in my sleep.
The question is what can I do to fulfill my psychological needs, continue working in the business, manage the homefront and be available for my son. It was a huge ask.
I could not upend my life, and commitments to just walk off pursuing my needs. What my heart desired.
I needed something that I could do without rocking much of my existing world. Choices that won’t force people around me to significantly adjust or adapt.
Suddenly, the pieces fell into place
So you look for signs from the universe because the obvious often doesn’t come to mind. Not at least to my mind. (*eye roll*)
A chance conversation with an ex-boss cum mentor led to a wonderful outcome. He suggested I take up writing as a second career. No other profession will give me the opportunity or motivation to read more. It is one of the prerequisites for writing better.
The writing was not new to me. I had been dabbling with it for years. It was probably meant to be always and I was stubborn ignoring the signs.
It was a win-win for me too. Since I was working from 9 to 6, I could write anytime from 6 to 9.
And so it began.
Busy writing various paid assignments, I seldom had the time to think of writing for fun like a palate cleanser. Just for the sake of writing and enjoying it. You know like singing a song for joy not to qualify for Britain’s Got Talent show.
“Create. Not for the money. Not for the fame. Not for the recognition. But for the pure joy of creating something and sharing it.” ~ Ernest Barbaric
The second career too became drudgery at some point. (I have the knack for screwing things up.) There was a significant dip in inspiration, productivity, and creativity.
I wanted to write for pleasure along with my professional writing assignments. I wanted to experiment.
There were 2 new challenges -
- How to fight procrastination and deliver my assignments on time (to overcome said drudgery)
- Write with integrity and versatility to appeal to different groups of readers
My mind was unsettled. I had to work through this internal tussle. I spent nights researching online trying to find ideas. It is then I was directed to Darius Foroux’s blog. He has colossal thoughts and solutions for procrastination and “finding meaning in our work”. And you don’t need to keep the thesaurus tab open while reading his posts.
His writing has an economy of a master swordsman. Not a move extra and every word precisely where it is needed when it is needed.
I began by randomly reading his posts and gradually warming up to his amazing content. After following and reading a bunch of other online experts, I was convinced that it was Foroux that I wanted to stick to.
The date was the 18th of August 2019 when I had signed up for Darius Foroux’s free newsletter. The day was a Sunday. Looking back, it was one of the best decisions that I had ever made.
My mailbox has about 220+ emails of his containing various posts that were meaningful. I have saved them as I go back and peruse them when I want.
The biggest transformation in my ‘writing for pleasure approach’ came after I had joined Foroux’s ‘The Sounding Board’ in July 2020. The brief interaction in this private community helped me create my roadmap to get started on the desired path. It helped me find my way through Delta and Omicron and everything in between and beyond.
Thank you, Darius Foroux for helping me to be productive, and focused and find the audacity to reinvent myself.
For finding joy in creating.
I write about small businesses, health, and life as I see it on Medium, LinkedIn, and my website.
