Why I Write for Medium
How Regular Writing is Helping Me Grow
I have been writing on Medium since June 2023. I am into self-improvement and regularly seek to gain a deeper understanding by reading, watching, and listening to self-help content, whenever I can find the time. As an engineer, my curiosity for understanding the workings of the human psyche and developing self-improvement solutions motivates me consistently.
I started writing about self-help due to my regular journal writing habit. It involves writing your story, analyzing it, and understanding what went wrong, with a goal of self-growth. Moreover, it also helps internalize good advice: when you try to reproduce something you have learned, it exposes gaps in your knowledge and understanding. Hence, my online writing has been a natural extension of my journal writing habit.
I discovered Medium on June 2023 and was impressed by the quality of solutions and insights in the articles. My fundamental goal aligns with the following saying.
“We need stories to understand ourselves” — Salman Rushdie
In this article, I will present reasons why writing for Medium has been a win-win situation for me.
1. Practical solutions presented in articles
What I especially liked was that people can comment on your ideas and that they can discuss their own experiences. These insights and ideas hold greater utility, deriving from practical experience. Several accomplished authors produce compelling content applicable to our daily lives.”
2. I can help myself by helping others
I have pursued volunteering as a hobby for many years. Volunteering and helping others is one of the ways you can improve your mental resilience. This is explained in the following Big Think YouTube video [1]. By writing on medium I intend to not only help others by sharing my experiences and insights about things that worked for me, but also making me better understand my flaws and how I can improve myself. This is all in addition to improving my writing skill.
3. Being part of a supportive online community of writers
I have pursued volunteering as a hobby for many years. Volunteering and helping others is one of the ways you can improve your mental resilience. This is explained in the following Big Think YouTube video [1]. By writing on medium I intend to not only help others by sharing my experiences and insights about things that worked for me, but also making me better understand my flaws and how I can improve myself. This is all in addition to improving my writing skill.
4. It motivates me to develop my writing skill
Medium has a large community of writers that support each other. Moreover, there are several high-quality articles from accomplished authors sharing their ideas. These are very valuable as they are supported by evidence of personal experience as well as research. It is much more productive to read these, instead of news and other online articles that nowadays, are more about entertainment and clickbait.
5. Writing and critical thinking go hand in hand
This is presented very well in this short YouTube video [2] by Jordan Peterson. The crux here is:
“The best way to teach people critical thinking is to teach them to write”
— Jordan Peterson
In my experience, writing has helped me structure my train of thought. This, not only trains your mind for improving your writing skills but also speaking and conversation. When you write, you have to commit your mind to expending physical and mental effort. The effort automatically pushes your mind to think in a structured fashion to avoid unnecessary work that may not be helpful. Moreover, it also detaches you from your emotions and enables rational analysis.
6. Creating an alternate revenue source
I am interested in creating motivational and self-help content to help others and develop it as an online business and a source of revenue. I think of followers as my customers, and my goal is to help them by creating content that can be useful to them.
Final thoughts
I think writing has more benefits than the ones listed above. These are just the most important reasons why I do it regularly. Hence, writing for Medium is an opportunity of helping myself by helping others while building a revenue stream.
References
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieBEEYsrNSQ&t=3s
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfDOoADCfkg
If you found any of my article helpful, kindly click the follow button. It’s a simple action that carries no obligation, and it greatly motivates me to create more useful content. Your support is genuinely appreciated.
I aim to attain over 100 followers, enabling me to monetize my work and gain tangible rewards. This will serve as motivation for me to enhance content quality and provide greater assistance to a larger audience.
Link to my profile: https://medium.com/@kpgemusha
