5 things I’ve learned from writing for a year.

I’ve been (attempting to) consistently write for my blog for over a year now.

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What started out as a hobby and a creative outlet, has now grown into a way to express myself and something that my I, my friends, and probably even strangers can read and resonate with in a world where things seem to feel as disjointed and disconnected as ever.

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In a world of algorithms, doom-scrolling, and shitty AI generated content, writing has become somewhat of an authentic and meditative practice where I can take a moment and concentrate on a thought or feeling and communicate it to the world.

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Not to sound like your 12th grade English teacher, but I truly believe writing is one of the most important and impactful skills one can have, but it also affects other areas of your life as well. Here are the most important things I’ve learned from writing a blog for 1 year.

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I’ve learned how to more effectively think and communicate.

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Typically when I sit down and write an article, I’m often met with the dreaded Blank Page Syndrome. The feeling when you’re staring at a brand new document with nothing on it and the feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, and unlimited possibilities of what it could be makes me procrastinate to no end.

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But by forcing myself to just write something down and not care about the final product being perfect (which I still often do), it has forced me to better be able to organize my thoughts and feelings in a thoughtful and coherent way.

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I always tell myself “how would this sound to a complete stranger, someone who didn’t know me at all?”

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It has helped me better communicate the essence of my thoughts, experiences, and feelings through simply putting words together long enough and well enough to create an understanding with me and whoever is reading what I wrote.

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Not only that, but it has helped think and speak more clearly. Whether it be just constructing ideas and theories in my head or just having conversations with friends or strangers. In some ways, it has reconstructed the way I think and interact with the world around me.

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Being a writer makes me a better reader, and being a better reader makes me a better writer.

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I already was a big reader, it is partly what got me interested in writing a blog in the first place. But having a platform to write only increased my love for reading because now I find myself paying even closer attention to an author’s writing style, their word choice, their tone of voice, and so many other things that go into the technicalities of communication.

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I feel like I appreciate good writing so much more than I used to now, and the details of paragraphs, fonts, headings, and organization of blocks of text to make it easier on the eyes are all things I find myself appreciating so much more.

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This newfound interest has in turn made me an even bigger reader, as I find myself looking for inspiration from other works for different ways I can improve upon my own writing and topics to talk about and how I can offer my own spin on their idea.

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Telling people you read is also a huge flex, it makes you seem like you’re smart or something (which I’m not).

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Writing is everything.

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Being able to write is actually one of the most foundational skills needed in order to be successful in anything because it is the start of communication.

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Communication is everything, and when it comes to organizing your thoughts into a coheret statement so another human can understand it, a great way to practice that is with writing. Whether it is giving a speech, doing an interview, or even having a productive argument with your significant other, communication is key for all of them.

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In a world of infinite short form 10 second clips playing forever and emoji’s, being able to communicate your idea and hold someones attention for long enough to get to the point has never been more important.

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The fear of people judging you for what you post is ridiculous, nobody really cares.

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I often have the self doubting thoughts of posting new articles even to this day. Insecure thoughts like “nobody is going to care about this” or “people might think I’m weird or cringe for talking about this” still pop up all the time.

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But I still force myself to move past these negative thoughts and post anyway. Who cares? At the end of the day the worst case scenario is that people don’t read the whole thing and they move on with their day to go look at something else.

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It’s turned into somewhat of a weekly opportunity to push myself and get out of my comfort zone. Which I’ve realized is healthy for me because it’s so easy to use social media to just consume endless amounts of content that doesn’t do anything for me anyway.

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By forcing myself to publicly share my personal thoughts and ideas, it’s turned me into someone who has less shame when it comes to posting on social media, which is a strange phenomenon that should be studied at some point.

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You know what I’m talking about.

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People are more likely to support you, not judge you.

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I think what stops many people from going out and doing something they want to do, especially something that’s creative, is the fear of judgement and failure.

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Contrary to that self limiting belief, my experience is actually quite different.

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Everyone who has ever read my blog has always had something nice and positive to say about it, and they always tell me to keep going. The response to this blog has been overwhelmingly supportive and filled with love, with even people I haven’t talked to in years reaching out to me because they read my writing.

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So maybe this belief people tend to have that people are negative and will tear you down is actually false, people tend to actually be very nice and supportive of your endeavors.

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So with that in mind now, I encourage everyone reading this to take the leap, and don’t hold back. Take a chance on yourself and prove that you can do it and be successful at it.

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And let everyone watch and support you along the way.

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The idea of “disappearing for 6 months” and reemerging as a totally transformed version of yourself is silly. I reject that, and say you should actually do it all in public and show people, and bring them along on your journey.

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No being mysterious and hiding from everyone while still being chronically online. Invite everyone to follow along with you as you do things, and not just doing it by yourself. It will reap so many rewards for you over time if you allow people to follow along with you on your journey.

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So I say, go ahead and make that TikTok, post that post, and take that leap into whatever that thing is you’ve always wanted to do, and stick with it.

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And don’t be afraid to show people what you’re into, because they will only have good things to share with you.

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And if they talk shit about you, then they’re insecure haters who probably don’t even have the balls to take a leap of any kind anyway, so their opinion is unimportant.

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BONUS LESSONNNNN

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Perfectionism is a waste of time.

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Countless times I’ve found myself in an ADD loop of constantly going down the rabbit hole of editing a piece of writing because I feel like it isn’t quite as good as it could be.

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Maybe if I explore this idea or say this a little bit better, then it will be good enough (for my standards).

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When working on a creative piece, it’s very easy to get caught up in the minute details of a project when you are trying to make it perfect. To a certain extent this is good, it shows dedication to your craft, but it could very easily be toxic and you will drive yourself mad chasing perfection because as you continue to tweak and edit, the goal post continues to move forward.

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At some point I had to realize done is better than perfect, and just take the risk and publish some unpolished writing.

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On one hand it could have been better than it was, on another hand maybe the flaws in it reflect the raw ideas and feelings it contained in the first place.

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On a third hand maybe it was perfect all along, and the people consuming the art would never even notice the small detail I was killing myself over for hours in the first place.