Why I write and why you should too
I have never been too comfortable with writing. Speaking is my thing. Put me in front of a crowd, that is where I am at my best. But this feeling that writing is something I needed to work at never left me. I kept coming across people who seemed to relish writing, who produced articulate, eloquent, and well-structured texts, seemingly without much effort and it made me want to get better at writing.
One day, talking to a like-minded group of friends keen to explore, learn and grow, I had a light-bulb moment and realized that writing is nothing but another skill. And like with other skills, it is not enough to read about how to improve it, one has to get into it and practice. Practice a lot, get feedback, make adjustments, continue practicing. Eventually, with time and effort, it was bound to get better, to a point where I can write well. Let’s say, seemingly without much effort.
I started writing on Medium last year and put up a little over a dozen articles. It was partly an experiment, to see if this was something I would enjoy doing. So far, so good. It gives me feedback and frankly education I would not have otherwise received. It generates interesting discussions. It leads to new and interesting subjects to explore and write about.
It was also partly because I felt I had something to share with people, specifically my experience and knowledge in learning and personal growth. If there are people who are passionate about learning or improving a skill, and if I could help them with that, why not?
But above all, it is practice. Article after article, putting my thoughts together in a manner that would work for the reader and be of value — this was, for me, another example that nothing beats practicing skills you want to develop, as opposed to watching YouTube videos or reading Medium articles about it. As Yogi Berra put it: “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is”.
It is interesting how your thoughts on a particular topic that you feel are crystal clear in your head suddenly become confusing and messy once you try to put them on paper. This is where writing helps improve the thought process, organize or re-organize it, give it a better structure and above all, test your suppositions about how well you think you are prepared to articulate a point or an argument. It helps identify gaps in your arguments and do additional research if needed, approach the topic from a different angle, and try to understand opposing views.
Making a YouTube video is, of course, much faster. But writing is worth investing in because it impacts your thinking. Your communication improves. You argue more skillfully and more confidently. Even your decision-making is bound to get better. Getting better at writing will also help enhance the quality of any other type of content you are putting out — visuals, audio, or video materials.
Writing is a unique activity in that it serves to elevate you, it helps you learn how to deliver an important message so it is heard. How to negotiate better, how to plan, how to bring people together. You write better, you think better. This makes you extremely effective.
At the same time, if you are sharing knowledge or experience that readers respond to, or learn from, you also elevate the world around you. In this sense, writing is an activity that for me is in line with both of my Two Rules that guide my daily life and decision-making. It helps you grow, and it could help the world around you get a little better. Small impact like helping a reader or two might seem insignificant, but it matters. It accumulates and compounds. Sometimes all it takes to get a person to take responsibility, or to choose to move forward in life is one piece of writing that catches their eye and resonates. The right message. The right timing.
George Orwell once said that the first reason he wrote was sheer egoism — the desire to seem clever and to get talked about. Honest and well, true for everyone who writes. But among his reasons, there was also what he referred to as political purpose. This is the intention to steer the world around us in a specific direction, to impact the thoughts and ideas of other people, particularly in terms of the way our society should be.
I don’t quite aim at lofty goals like that at this point. I don’t trust ideas or ideologies. Even the most benevolent ideologies can run amok and ruin lives (I grew up in the Soviet Union). I trust a specific type of people. People who want to be better and who want to make things better. People who want to grow and can accept failures, learn from them, and keep moving forward. Those are the people that make our world better. And I want to be of help if I can. A little push, a nudge, something that resonates and prompts them to action. The right message. The right timing.
That is why I write. To learn and to help learn. Give it a try.
