Why I Started to Write

Two or three years ago, I decided to build a blog to write and share ideas. Due to my past detrimental strife for perfectionism, I spent months refining it and adding features that were aesthetic and did not add value to the result. As a consequence, I ended up writing a few articles and stopped. I learned several things and made things differently.

Different Approach

Two months ago, after reading an inspirational post about starting a blog, I came back to the idea and made things differently. First, I set a goal. And second, I focused on things that matter: content over appearance. The main point for me was to spend no more than a couple of days on the design and spend my effort on writing. I chose to build the blog on Webflow, and it has been an exciting experience. It took me two days instead of months to achieve the same result I had several years ago. Once I quickly laid out the design, I started to write on subjects that I had been curious about for a long time.

The first ten posts came out quite naturally as I had them in my mind for a long time. Since then, I am struggling a bit to find valuable topics to learn and write about. However, there will always be ups and downs. I look at it positively, and I am sure more ideas will flow. Sometimes I visit blogs of people who I follow and try to find an interesting problem. If I can learn and add something new, I would then write about it.

I made a bigger mistake back then. I did not have any goals in mind. I thought having a blog is a cool idea, and that’s all. I did not know what to share. I had an impostor syndrome, and all I could accomplish was to write a couple of software tutorials. Today, I do it for many reasons.

Self-growth

I write to learn. One of the most effective ways to learn is to explain it to others (and myself). I find that a lot of blogs and even books share the knowledge but lack of clear framework or a step by step guide. I try to condense the information I find into a meaningful and actionable guide. During the process of explanation, I often find flaws and learn new things. The process is beneficial for both me and my audience.

Writing helps to structure my thoughts and internalize insights. Reading or thinking, in my opinion, is not enough to understand the concept and anything that is behind it. Once I write and structure it in a meaningful way, it becomes much easier to internalize and implement it in my life.

Writing helps to find insights. Often when I start writing, my thought process brings unexpected ideas and insights. It is satisfactory to find them. It feels like you have finally reached it or understood it fully. Especially when the different topics I write about lead me to discover valuable questions. Finding them is a valuable insight as well.

Writing helps to explore new topics that I have been curious about but haven’t had a dedicated activity. My excuse was that I do not have enough time. Today I have a project for it. I used to think about a topic and forget it the next day. Now I write them down in a list of ideas for my blog. When it is time to write, I go through and choose one.

I write to document my thoughts for future reference. I can come back to an article and see if I learned something new, applied to my life, or was wrong about something.

I write to exercise my courage to share. I often find myself afraid of contributing an idea. I fear people can find it useless. Writing helps me to overcome that feeling and become more confident. I am still hesitant to share on social media, but I will work it out soon.

I write to create instead of consuming. The contribution is essential. I have a strong belief that everyone should contribute to make our world a better place. I read somewhere that only 5% of people create. That is a pretty low number, and I hope it will change soon.

I write to build a new skill. I never thought I could write clearly. I practice to improve it. It can also develop other forms of communication that I lack due to my introverted nature.

Building an audience/community

I write to build an audience that has common values. A community that can discuss and gives feedback on the topics I write.

I write to provoke thoughts that can lead to changes. I hope the topics I write about can be useful to others.

A blog is a place where like-minded people can connect with me. The internet is a vast space that can bring people from different parts of the world. I have always lacked people that have a similar mindset. Writing about it can help me to find such people.

Consequential changes

I noticed a lot of positive changes in my life once I got an insight into a question I wrote about.

It can leave a part of me in the future.

A blog can become a resume.

Summary

Sometimes it is hard. Lack of intermediate rewards, such as feedback, can be discouraging. But like any other habit, it needs to be consistent. This article is a good summary of why I do what I do. Whenever I am unmotivated, I can come back and see if the reasons I described here matter more than what I feel right now. I am sure that anyone can write and share it with others. To make it easier, set specific goals, and find relevant reasons that will keep you going.

Originally published at https://www.maray.ai.