‘The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living’ — Socrates

Socrates’s quote inspires writers to keep writing

“The unexamined life is not worth living” Socrates said as he declared the essence of a good life. “The only good is knowledge”. With knowledge, a person could shape their own destiny and find true happiness.

During a time when the world was looking to the cosmos for understanding, Socrates looked inward to the human mind for the questions and answers to life. The way to wisdom was to be found through human dialogue.

Something in Socrates’s words and search for knowledge resonated with me as I thought about writing and the struggles we all face as writers.

I realized that the process itself is the true gift. Writing is the process of examining life.

Some days our words come out beautifully, other days not so much. But one thing remains no matter what happens — we are personally changed because we are actively learning, actively striving, and our minds are engaged and lit up as we struggle with our ideas and words through the writing process.

As writers, we’re exploring ideas that we’re passionate about, and experiences that will make an impact on other people and bring some sort of value into the world.

Sometimes the writing process seems overwhelming and frustrating. Self-motivation and confidence, even sense of purpose, go up and down in alternating waves of frustration and euphoria. Sometimes it’s just so difficult to get started. But when this happens, we should remind ourselves of the gift that writing gives us.

The process

Whether we have success or don’t, we gain so much from the process itself. We examine life, in our own way, through our own interests and curiosities, and our exploration is the reward. Socrates inspires and motivates us to continue.

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance .

Writing allows us to start each day, as Socrates did, from the stance that “we know nothing”. With our blank screens or paper, our personal tabula rasas, this is our tool and inspiration — to ask questions and seek answers. It’s hard work. Some days, our brains have answers, and some days they need to seek further.

We stare at the blank page. We start by asking a question.

Our writing community

For Socrates, the most important way to learn was to have conversations with people. In talking with each other through debate and discussion, we could work through the questions and answers to life. He spent his days in the Agora, the open space in Athens where he and his followers assembled to talk.

As modern writers, we open our discourse up to a world-wide conversation of the written word — ideas, texts, and posts are a part of every aspect of life. This connects us to each other and our interaction can be with the entire world, with people who have vastly different cultures and ideas than we do. Socrates would have been inspired. We share something with our readers, and they share it back with us.

When you are frustrated on a certain day, remember that the value of writing is also in being a part of this writing community. Your writing endeavours make you a part of a club of people who are expressing and sharing ideas through the word. You understand experiences that only writers understand.

The connections we make to each other through our writing is the discourse that Socrates believed was the most powerful means of learning.

Wrestling with tension

It’s the struggle of fighting with our ideas and wrestling with our challenges that keeps life fascinating. Tension and release keep us striving and then celebrating. Up and down, then up and down again.

We ask — “What is important or interesting to write about?” Then we go about seeking our treasure. We are strivers. We are seekers.

Seth Godin says in his new book The Practice:

True learning (as opposed to education) is a voluntary experience that requires tension and discomfort (the persistent feeling of incompetence as we get better at a skill).

The practice, then, is to not only cause temporary discomfort for those whom you lead, serve, and teach, but to embrace your own discomfort as you venture into territories unknown…Discomfort engages people, keeps them on their toes, makes them curious.

Discomfort is the feeling we all get just before change happens.

If we can find a way to sustain our love of writing through the process itself and blur our focus on the fluctuations of success, writing will be more fulfilling and a give us the greater reward of knowledge.

The writer’s gift

This is the gift of writing. Whether you are successful professionally, or just writing for yourself — being a writer strengthens our awareness, colours more vivid, sounds more striking. Our brains rush to connect and flash with ideas — we see things that we would never have noticed before.

Every day that I write I am thankful for the creativity that I didn’t know I had, the ideas I didn’t know I possessed, and the curiosity that has been reignited. I’m more interested in life because of my focus on writing — like Socrates, I realise that life is more worthwhile when it is filled with the pursuit and love of knowledge.

The next time you are frustrated with your writing, remember that its greatest gift is saved for you, even on the days it doesn’t work. You are learning, thinking, asking and sharing questions.

You are living an examined life — for yourself — which, indeed, is most worth living.