Here's What I learned From 2 Years of Writing

When I started writing, it was for the sheer purpose of delving deeper into the things that interested and fuelled me the most, not for the writing itself.

What I didn’t expect during the 2 years I’ve spent doing so are the multiple positive consequences that would come as a consequence, ones that have genuinely improved me in so many different ways.

Writing has taught me the following:

Critical Thinking

When you’re forced to take a thought, an idea or a belief from your mind and onto a piece of paper or a digital document, you quickly get to see just how much you truly understand and start questioning a lot of the reasons why and how you’ve come to that conclusion.

That’s exactly what critical thinking is: the ability to objectively analyse information and question assumptions, an essential skill for life in general. 

Sometimes we accept things as true without ever questioning them, often believing or living by them without ever truly seeing them for what they are. Writing creates space for us to see this habit and quickly start changing it.

Writing is practising the ability to think more objectively and less automatically, allowing you to start changing habits that might be holding you back, such as self-limiting beliefs or the language you use that keeps you down. 

The Articulation Of Thought

I often found myself believing that I deeply understood a concept or an idea, but the moment I was forced to explain it to someone else, I would fumble, barely able to explain anything, forgetting words and just overall losing any credibility on the matter.

It’s difficult to express how frustrating this was.

It wasn’t because I didn’t truly know anything about it, I just couldn’t articulate my thoughts in a way that matched my knowledge on the matter.

However, since writing, I have watched this slowly improve as time goes on. 

Writing slows you down, it gives you more time, even just an extra couple of milliseconds, to find the right word, framing, or analogy to describe what you’re thinking. It always felt as though my brain was too quick for my mouth, but writing has decreased the gap between the two, allowing me to sound a lot better when speaking about something I truly care about.

I’m still nowhere near where I want to be, and still find myself getting stuck now and again, but my progress so far shows where I’m likely to be in another couple of years.

Mental Fitness

Writing is an interesting practice as it’s all in the mind, all you have to physically do is move your fingers or wrist, yet it’s extremely difficult. 

Sometimes, if I’m writing something complex, something I’m struggling to frame or word correctly or an idea that I know little about, I find myself struggling to muster the energy to just sit down and do it.

This is because I know it’s going to be hard, not physically demanding, but mentally taxing.

I see these as reps, just like reps in the gym that build your chest or arms. Writing is reps for the mind, making it smarter, sharper, faster, and better.

Writing makes you smarter as you learn what you write, but it’s also mental fitness, keeping the brain young and fit.

Problem Solving 

One of the reasons writing is a mental workout is that you’re constantly solving problems. 

When you write, especially when it’s for others to read, you have to turn what you understand and describe it in a way that almost everyone can follow along, which is not as easy as it sounds.

So not only does it force you to think about what you’re writing, but it also forces you to think about it from another person's perspective. 

These are problems you must solve, and again, this is just practice for the real world. 

Creatively Satisfying 

Picture everything I’ve just described, all the hard work, frustration and challenge that comes with it and picture it clearly because after all that, you still get to go from a blank sheet to something that you have created.

You started with nothing, maybe something as simple and small as a quote, and turned it into something uniquely yours, a literal creation.

I’ve pursued many practices in my life, especially when growing, like seriously a comical amount of things became addictions for me, from table tennis to handstands, yet none as creatively satisfying as writing.

Going from something even you can barely understand to something you could describe to a child is very satisfying, and you get to walk away a better and smarter person for it.

To Conclude

Writing began as a way to express my passion for a specific topic, yet it quickly became something I now do for the sake of doing it.

Whether it’s a journal, a blog or even a book, even if you never plan to share it with anyone, I highly recommend writing, you’ll become better in so many interesting ways.