WRITING | PRODUCTIVITY
Why I changed my Medium Bio to have Verbs instead of Nouns
This is not a lesson in elementary grammar.
The Problem
My Medium bio looked like this:-
I’m a businessman by day and a writer by night.
There, I’d done it. Called myself the ‘W’ word.
Ever since I self-labeled myself as a writer, I’ve been feeling a dull ache.
The sinking feeling that I’m a writer who doesn’t… Ummm..well, write.
Don't get me wrong, it feels great to be called a writer — the sinking comes in when I don't actually WRITE.
Ever since I joined Medium in September 2022, I’ve written 7 articles.
Now you may think, that’s not bad, right? Well, 4 of those were 150 words or less and they were born out of frustration.
Frustration about not writing regularly. Calling them articles is a shame. They were more or less — “Notes to Self” at the max, and I wrote them just to hit ‘Publish’. Call it a case of Premature Publication.
One article did well and I am proud of it but that’s about it.
The Problem Aggravated
Calling myself a writer creates pressure — to write. It takes the fun out of an activity that is supposed to be fun for me. I know writing is a job like any other, and I know it demands time every day if it is to be done seriously, but that’s the thing, I don’t want to do it seriously (for now).
I want to do it because I like doing it. I don't want to write because I am a writer. I want to write because I like writing.
I said the same thing here.
Eve Arnold on Medium has some great content about this.
Changing the narrative to **drumroll** — Verbs from Nouns
Get ready for some elementary grammar.
I’m kidding :P
Let me explain.
Nouns are labels, and labels hold you down. They feel like a self-imposed cage.
How?
When I call myself a businessman, my brain which is addicted to mental masturbation (that’s not as bad as it sounds — look it up), my brain imagines myself as the next Jeff Bezos creating the next Amazon.
It automatically makes the jump from businessman to super-successful entrepreneur.
This is key — just thinking about the thing you crave releases dopamine. About the same amount you would experience if you actually indulged in, or got that thing. — Dr Andrew Huberman from The Huberman Lab
Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Just imagining achieving something gives you the same amount of pleasure as actually achieving it.
Similarly, when I call myself a Writer, I am expected to tick some (if not all) of the following boxes:-
- Write viral posts every week
- Make 6 figures from writing online
- Have a great personal website
- Have a regular newsletter going
- Sell digital products left and right
The whole shebang of modern online writing.
Overwhelming.
Enter — Verbs.
Where Noun is a cage, verbs are wings, wings which set you free (it’s metaphor day today!)
Where nouns force you to be something, verbs inspire you to do something.
“We aren’t nouns, we are verbs. Forget the nouns do the verbs” — Stephen Fry
You don't have to be the noun to do the verb.
So, I am NOT a writer. I simply— write.
Whenever I want to, however I want to, and about whatever I want to.
This does two things:-
- Keeps me humble (head not in the clouds about being Jeff anymore).
- Keeps me focused on writing the next best sentence I can OR making the next sale.
You can apply this method to anything.
I am NOT a businessman (noun, urgh!).
I sell things. I provide the best service in town. (verb, yay).
I am NOT a programmer (a programmer codes the next ChatGPT — or remains under pressure to do so).
I write code (I’m happy with coding one “for loop” a day).
I do the verb rather than be the noun.
This is what my bio says now
“I write, and I sell stuff. I invest, and I write code. Sometimes, all at once.”
These were the 4 ‘articles’ I wrote about business.
