Personal Growth From the Process of Publishing Articles

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

2840

Abstract

f6e">Upon publishing my first few articles I faced the following issues which I earlier had not anticipated<ul><li>Getting exposed as my true self in front of everyone: Before publishing my work, I was a person who would show only part of myself in front of certain people. Very few people knew about my innate desires and feelings. But through writing in a public forum, it became known to all. This initially made me quite vulnerable as I did not anticipate this issue coming.</li><li>Excitement related to comments from various people: I never realized that I can be left paralyzed due to excitement arising out of getting good reviews from my friends and readers. Some people say excitement is good as it motivates you to do better but I felt as if I could not do any meaningful and creative activity when I was overly excited.</li><li>Fear of negative response: I had contentious relationships with some of my friends and felt that if I fail and that failure is known to them then I would lose the battle of who maintains a higher position. Getting a negative response for any of my articles was one such failure. Also, negative feelings associated with earlier experiences of my life in relation to getting negative responses also triggered anxiety and anger within me.</li></ul><h1 id="29d9">How did I overcome the subsequent issues</h1><ul><li>“Getting exposed” issue: It takes courage to be one person with everyone. If we play the game of being a different person with different people then subconsciously we are always having a fear of getting exposed and on being exposed, we fear losing the relationship. Also if we analyze such relationships then we will find that we are the victim in these relationships. We have to put up a mask in order to be acceptable by the other which drains our energy and causes stress. To overcome the issue, I analyzed all the relationships wherein I feared being exposed and then applied catharsis on all fears which forced me to wear the mask. This was not easy. It meant I was ready to let go of the relationship in case the other person does not accept me for who I am. But after applying catharsis and let go of all the fears, I felt much at ease with myself. I felt free.</li><li>“Excitement” issue: I realized that when I was overly excited upon receiving any good comments, etc, it was mainly because I wanted to prove something to others. By getting a good response, it felt I succeeded in proving myself and thus satisfying my ego. But as is the case, anything that is driven from the ego never satisfies a person and there is always an emptiness within. To overcome this issue I applied catharsis on all my fears which dependent upon reliance on the person to whom I wanted to prove myself. Previous work in the

Options

case of “Getting exposed” also helped in this case as there were many overlapping incidents of fear. Upon working on my fears, I felt very less reliance to satisfy others and my ego thus making me quite at peace with myself.</li><li>“Negative response” issue: When I received any negative response for any of my articles, I had a feeling of anger and resentment. Upon analyzing it deeply, I found the underlying reason was my previous fears, I felt upon getting a similar negative response. Also, I had contentious relationships with some of the people, and getting a negative response meant that they get an upper hand on proving who is better. There is no end to this. It is only by coming out of this hatred and desire to prove who is better, can we be free of this issue.</li></ul><ol><li>To overcome it, I applied catharsis on all occasions where I feared for my safety due to early life experiences dealing with getting a negative response. It led me not to have an automatic experience of fear and anxiety upon receiving a similar negative response now.</li><li>Also removing the needs of maintaining the contentious relationships helped me from coming out of the need for demeaning each other. I first removed all anger and resentment I had with the person which made me have the contentious relationship in the first place and replace it with understanding and love.</li></ol><h1 id="3661">Other benefits</h1><ul><li>Got in touch with friends who matter: In the initial days, I was self-promoting my articles which brought me in close contact with friends with whom I had lost connection. Some of them responded enthusiastically and we shared not just article related comments but also our life in general. It also made me realize that I should have spent more time with these friends during my college time instead of maintaining fake relationships with others.</li><li>Improvement in writing skills: I am now able to express my thoughts more freely and it generally does not take me more than 3–4 hours to complete an article from start to finish. This improved skill does not just make me enjoy benefits in the writing space but also in other aspects of my life such as a professional work environment, etc.</li></ul><h1 id="3d37">Conclusion</h1>I think I personally gained a lot from this new foray into the path of publishing my work. I just did not go with the flow but carefully analyzed whatever I was experiencing and if something required me to change for the better, then I applied the process of catharsis along with changing some of my older beliefs to achieve the same. Thus this process provided all the impetus for me to delve into the dormant aspects of my life and by addressing them, I became more free, happy, and at peace with myself.</article></body>

How going through the process of publishing articles changed me for the better.

The path we traverse should help us in becoming a better version of ourselves. Whatever we do may have an impact on others but the aspect that concerns us is how did it impact our own life. In this article, I shall cover the brief journey that I had with publishing my work and its impact on my growth process.

Initial Motivation

I started off with big hopes. Thought I would conquer the world and my writings will be on the trending list and that I will have lots of followers. I even thought that I might become a full-time writer. But I was hit hard with reality pretty soon. After publishing a few of my articles, only my close friends became my followers and that the articles had very few numbers of views. Thus the initial motivation which guided me towards this path of publishing my work was shattered but it did not leave me in the status quo as far as my mental state is concerned.

Lessons learned

I learned the following lessons from the analysis of the breakage of initial motivating forces:

As has been told in Bhagwad Gita, I started doing the work without having any expectations of the result. This not only freed me from the stress which comes from holding expectations but I also became more creative in whatever I did. I stopped caring if my article gets curated or finds a place in the trending list but without becoming complacent i.e. I still made sure that my work at least is my better creation and since what follows is not in my hand so let’s not be bothered about it.

I did an analysis as to why I felt that becoming a full-time writer would have been better. Actually I was taking an evasive step to the actual problem that there were some aspects of my current work which I hated. I applied catharsis on all major occasions of fear in relation to my current work which eventually led me to start enjoying my current work. I have explained catharsis in detail in the following articles: The process of catharsis explained in terms of software development analogy Does an empty mind make you feel restless?

Subsequent Issues

Upon publishing my first few articles I faced the following issues which I earlier had not anticipated

Getting exposed as my true self in front of everyone: Before publishing my work, I was a person who would show only part of myself in front of certain people. Very few people knew about my innate desires and feelings. But through writing in a public forum, it became known to all. This initially made me quite vulnerable as I did not anticipate this issue coming.

Excitement related to comments from various people: I never realized that I can be left paralyzed due to excitement arising out of getting good reviews from my friends and readers. Some people say excitement is good as it motivates you to do better but I felt as if I could not do any meaningful and creative activity when I was overly excited.

Fear of negative response: I had contentious relationships with some of my friends and felt that if I fail and that failure is known to them then I would lose the battle of who maintains a higher position. Getting a negative response for any of my articles was one such failure. Also, negative feelings associated with earlier experiences of my life in relation to getting negative responses also triggered anxiety and anger within me.

How did I overcome the subsequent issues

“Getting exposed” issue: It takes courage to be one person with everyone. If we play the game of being a different person with different people then subconsciously we are always having a fear of getting exposed and on being exposed, we fear losing the relationship. Also if we analyze such relationships then we will find that we are the victim in these relationships. We have to put up a mask in order to be acceptable by the other which drains our energy and causes stress. To overcome the issue, I analyzed all the relationships wherein I feared being exposed and then applied catharsis on all fears which forced me to wear the mask. This was not easy. It meant I was ready to let go of the relationship in case the other person does not accept me for who I am. But after applying catharsis and let go of all the fears, I felt much at ease with myself. I felt free.

“Excitement” issue: I realized that when I was overly excited upon receiving any good comments, etc, it was mainly because I wanted to prove something to others. By getting a good response, it felt I succeeded in proving myself and thus satisfying my ego. But as is the case, anything that is driven from the ego never satisfies a person and there is always an emptiness within. To overcome this issue I applied catharsis on all my fears which dependent upon reliance on the person to whom I wanted to prove myself. Previous work in the case of “Getting exposed” also helped in this case as there were many overlapping incidents of fear. Upon working on my fears, I felt very less reliance to satisfy others and my ego thus making me quite at peace with myself.

“Negative response” issue: When I received any negative response for any of my articles, I had a feeling of anger and resentment. Upon analyzing it deeply, I found the underlying reason was my previous fears, I felt upon getting a similar negative response. Also, I had contentious relationships with some of the people, and getting a negative response meant that they get an upper hand on proving who is better. There is no end to this. It is only by coming out of this hatred and desire to prove who is better, can we be free of this issue.

To overcome it, I applied catharsis on all occasions where I feared for my safety due to early life experiences dealing with getting a negative response. It led me not to have an automatic experience of fear and anxiety upon receiving a similar negative response now.

Also removing the needs of maintaining the contentious relationships helped me from coming out of the need for demeaning each other. I first removed all anger and resentment I had with the person which made me have the contentious relationship in the first place and replace it with understanding and love.

Other benefits

Got in touch with friends who matter: In the initial days, I was self-promoting my articles which brought me in close contact with friends with whom I had lost connection. Some of them responded enthusiastically and we shared not just article related comments but also our life in general. It also made me realize that I should have spent more time with these friends during my college time instead of maintaining fake relationships with others.

Improvement in writing skills: I am now able to express my thoughts more freely and it generally does not take me more than 3–4 hours to complete an article from start to finish. This improved skill does not just make me enjoy benefits in the writing space but also in other aspects of my life such as a professional work environment, etc.

Conclusion

I think I personally gained a lot from this new foray into the path of publishing my work. I just did not go with the flow but carefully analyzed whatever I was experiencing and if something required me to change for the better, then I applied the process of catharsis along with changing some of my older beliefs to achieve the same. Thus this process provided all the impetus for me to delve into the dormant aspects of my life and by addressing them, I became more free, happy, and at peace with myself.