This Is How I Think Writing Benefits You and Me.
I started my journey on Medium in August 2020. I have learned many lessons from others who write. I have also had my lightbulb moments as I write, and after I wrote. Many of these lessons are geared towards a specific extrinsic purpose (such as money, reader acquisition, and such). The intrinsic ones will be the focus of this story.
I woke up to the morning of January 2021 feeling sluggish. A look out of the window and the reason is obvious. It has been raining since the night before. I dragged myself out of bed before inertia sets in. I got a cup of coffee from the kitchen and headed straight to my working desk.
The view outside of the window looks like this.
As I was sipping coffee from my cup, the heat emancipating from the liquid body fogged my glasses slightly. My mind started cranking, and while they did, I couldn’t quite figure out what they were up to.
I did what I usually do when I encounter such moments. I start scribbling.
With a notepad and a pen within my grasp, I wrote the messages that whizzed past my mind. I do this at times to capture my inner voice.
As it turns out, that first message I scribbled is this.
“Why Do I Bother Writing?”
I couldn’t quite decipher the tonality of the message. As such, I decided to end that sentence with a question mark and not a period.
A question invokes further thinking and exploration. A period might carry a sense of frustration I find hard to appreciate.
As I started thinking more about this question, I asked myself if there is a purpose of writing and what I can get out of it.
And I started scribbling all points I can think of from that point onwards.
The first few points were seemingly obvious and did not take time to produce. These first few points were: -
- I write to get more readers because,
- That is the avenue to money because,
- More readers mean more money because,
- The amount of total readership time increases as the reader population increase,
- (Rinse, Wash, Repeat).
I will spare you the eyesore from the rest of the bullet stops because they form a circular reference.
I quickly identified the pattern of this line of thinking coming from my mind. This is about the results. One part of my mind was focused on the results.
Of course, having more followers could translate to more readers that could translate into more money. There are no doubts about it.
This is one of the rare moments I had to arrest my thoughts by hijacking them. If I am going around the desert in circles — I had to do something to break the pattern.
I asked myself the following question.
“Will I continue to write if there are no monetary results?”
I double-boxed this question with the inner box in blue and the outer one in black. I put my pen down and looked out of the window as I triggered my mind to start thinking about this.
This time, there were no immediate responses. I gave myself time and sipped coffee while waiting.
A fragment of the first response came. The tonality changed from the previous clear, crisp, straightforward responses to a deliberate one. This one seems to be an opener to something deep.
“Yes, of course. What I said just now are the results. And results are a derivative of the work that we do.”
I scribbled it.
I underlined the word Work.
I asked myself one more guiding question.
“Is that it? Is it about the work we do?”
This time, the responses came within seconds. And the anchor of the elaborated response is a resounding Yes, because. The word count on my notepad exploded. I summarise the points below.
How The Process of Writing Benefits You and Me — It Spreads Our Voice.
We have a voice. There are values we espouse. We could be thrifty, ambitious, want to make a difference, save the world, be a hero at climate change.
Writing is one of the ways we project our voice. As we write more, our values and ideas get spread further.
There will be people who share our thinking. Our writing allows us to find our tribe.
There will be people sitting on the fence who become convinced after reading our pieces. Our writing allows us to grow the population of like-minded people sharing our cause.
How The Process of Writing Benefits You and Me — It Clears Our Mind.
Writing is an act where it sharpens our mind. I do not know why. I know that it happens. And I am not exactly sure why it happens this way.
Maybe it works for me and not for others. We have to experiment.
Using my reflection as an example allows me to understand the difference between a process and the results.
It is embedded in human nature to want results fast and not commit to the time required for it to happen. In other words, everybody wants to be Warren Buffett when they are at age 30 and not age 90.
Then, it came to me that focusing on the process is more important because there are too many things we cannot control in life. We cannot control the results. There is really only one thing we can control in our life.
Our effort.
At this point, I became clear about the orientation in life and why hard work is the holy grail to prosperity.
This goes beyond writing.
How The Process of Writing Benefits You and Me — We Make the (Digital) World Better.
I started subscribing to Medium as a reader. In this regard, I have benefitted immensely from the perspective of taking.
And I can give, too.
I am not sure about you. I know legacy is a big word for me. There is something in me that drives the way I think and respond in this crazy World.
In brief — I want to leave something behind. I want to be remembered. I cannot live my life in vain.
I will be foolish to declare that I know how to do this at this point. I am still finding my way in life. Yet, the important distinction between a reader and a writer is the following.
- A reader is a thinker. He / She seeks growth through new perspectives.
- A writer is a practitioner. They write to put their thoughts across and improve on themselves within the same journey.
I do not know if my stories actually mean anything to anyone today. That does not shake my confidence that they will one day.
No one got rich without battle scars and bruises. If Kevin O’Leary and Elon Musk got there recognizing that 24 hours a day is not enough and sleeping on the factory floor is an inevitable part of this journey we know as life, then the 250+ stories I have written on Medium to date is a needle in a haystack.
I will continue to contribute my thoughts and “How-Tos” until they become a haystack.
That is how I can contribute to the digital community here. I will keep writing.
A Simple Reflection On Writing Goes A Long Way.
I believe in reflection, and specifically, I believe in writing down my reflections as a visual aid to deep thinking.
I genuinely believe that writing benefits you and me, and the benefits manifest themselves in the following forms, especially for me.
- It spreads my voice.
- It clears my mind.
- I can make (attempt to) the Digital World a better place.
And I think these points are not privy to me. It applies to all of us. Some of us will arrive at the same points as I did. Others may have a fraction of them, and many more do not arrive at the spot where I am.
And that is good.
Because one key benefit of writing is this.
It supports the richness of diversity in terms of thinking.
Do You Believe That Writing Benefits You?
Aldric
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About the Author:
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure.
Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
As a Consultant by training, I believe in making the complex simple.
Because simplicity adds value.
And with clarity — We grow.
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