4 Reasons You Need To Write, Often

Understanding Why Writing Matters

Writing is too hard, too boring, or requires too much time and thought. You don’t even think of yourself as a writer. Depending on who you are, some or all of the previous statements are true but you should still write often.

Here are four reasons you need to pick up a pen, find some paper, and start writing. 

1. Money
2. Goals, Behaviours, Outcomes 
3. Clarity
4. Improved Mental Health
5. How to get started

Money

Ah yes!!

Writing to get paid. Promises of fame, fortune, and romance when we hit the bestseller list dance in our heads. Whole industries are plagued with some type get rich quick scheme and the writing business is no different. Very seldom does anyone explain the likelihood that there will be years of practice and tons of rejection emails before you are even noticed. If you are determined to give it a try, I suggest you get a good (meaning blunt and experienced) Coach.  

I recommend that you Join Freelance Writers Den where Carol Tice has been coaching new and struggling writers for over a decade. If you want a no BS intro to freelance writing, I highly recommend that you sign up.

(This  is an affiliate link so if you join I get a small reward)

Carol specializes in getting freelance writers started properly. She also runs one of the web’s most popular blogs on freelance writing.

“I only write when I’m inspired, so I see to it that I’m inspired every morning at nine o’clock.  Peter De Vries

Goals, Behaviours, Outcomes

Edward Locke and Gary Latham in their paper, “Self-Regulation Through Goal Setting” state “ the simplest and most direct motivational explanation why some people perform better than others is because they have different performance goals.” 

To further summarize, setting a better goal leads to better performance.

DUH!!

Well maybe not “Duh!”  because most of what people called goals are really aspirations and vague aspirations at that. This is a theme I’ve covered before.  The process of turning Aspiration into a Behavior leading to an expected Outcome is explained in this book.

Getting from aspiration to outcome requires lots of mental work. In fact, too much mental work to keep it all in your head.  You need paper and pen or a blank computer screen to accurately see; Where You Are, Where You Want to Be,  and What Tools / Techniques You Need to Get There.

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now.” — W. H. Murray,”

Clarity

Plans for the future, reviews of the past, bad habits to kill, and good habits to grow are all running loose in your head. The war for your attention is constant. You think failure in some areas of your life is due to a lack of motivation. Yet lack of clarity on the next step in a process leads to procrastination and then quitting. Sticking your plans and reviews of habits  onto a piece of paper solves two problems:

1. They are not running amok consuming mental energy.
2.  you can better analyze what to throw into the mental trash basket and what to keep.

“If my doctor told me I only had six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood, I’d type faster.  Isaac Asimov

Improved Mental Health

More than one study has shown that writing is an effective form of self-therapy. Getting your hurts, disappointments, and anger onto the page has been shown to temporarily increase negative emotions. Writing everything out makes you worse in the short-run but, over the long term (6 month+) you improve. This is because you’ve let those things go.

Really, this is not a  surprise. just as future plans and past experiences can clash and cause trouble so too will you are emotions. In fact, your emotions are even more dangerous.  If you become brave enough to have a conversation with your darkest feelings they will perfectly justify themselves.  Despair, Wrath, Pride, will explain why you have every reason to act on how you presently feel.

Irrationally stupid is how destructive feelings look when written down. The majority of people who write their negative/dangerous feelings down, get some relief. My personal belief is that if more people took the time to write about their feelings of despair instead of scribbling suicide notes, there would be fewer suicides.

Equanimity, the importance of not letting happiness turn into prideful, irrational exuberance or sadness morph into desolate despair is discussed in this post.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. Marcus Aurelius

Getting Started

This entire post was written out using a handmade fountain pen, with purple ink on a lined legal-sized notepad. Grandiose?

Possibly, but along with habit formation explained in previous posts, here, here, and here, it keeps me writing.

You, dear reader, need never engage in this level of commitment to your writing.  A Google Docs account accessed through any laptop, tablet, or phone will give you more than enough blank pages to fill. Secured with a sensible password your deepest feelings, plans for planetary domination, and the first draft of your book will be safe from prying eyes.

Conclusion 

Writing is far too valuable a tool for your mental, financial and emotional health, to ignore. The benefits of writing on at least a weekly basis do not immediately become obvious. There is no doubt, though, that doing something so simple will profoundly change your life.  This is why writing often should matter to you.

Please write your thoughts in the comment section.

Resources

Get started with Freelance Writers Den

Make A Living Writing blog

The Benefits of Writing – M. Cecil Smith Ph.D