Writing and Reading
Most would not believe it but I read a lot when I was a kid. There were two different awards that you could earn every year by reading a certain amount. I remember keeping track of my progress and being pleased with finishing.
When you are younger, some things you do because your parents make you and others because there is some sort of prize. I am not sure exactly where my reading fell but it probably had both influences. Ironically, I still see both of these influences in my life and it’s about thirty years later.
I just left my mom’s house after a nice Thanksgiving (my favorite non-religious holiday) trip. She’s still telling me what to do on occasion. I am also very goal oriented. I do appreciate a nice reward at the end of a task. Some things never change.
Unexpected Benefits
Childhood reading is foundational to education.
When I read as a kid, there were times that I felt I was just doing it for the reward or because my parents made me. However, I was improving my skills. I was becoming a better reader and I use that ability every day now.
There are a lot of things in life of which we don’t see the benefits right away. E-Impact 56 was about delayed gratification. This concept applies to things that we are expecting a benefit. Today, I am referencing situations where we don’t expect a benefit.
I’ve spent about a year and a half writing blogs, e-books, regular books, and social media posts. My main focus in these efforts was to put out information; to share knowledge and experience of my own to help other people. I acknowledge that this is a noble effort. But, it is a little presumptuous.
Who am I to assume that I am some valuable source of information for people who want to make a positive impact in the world?
Sure, I’ve tried to do good things, I’ve been on mission trips, I’ve served others. But, there’s a lot of people who have done those things and done more of them for longer periods of time.
I have questioned the impact that I’ve made and thankfully I’m of the belief that my efforts have been worth it. However, I have begun to realize an additional benefit beyond the traditional impact that we frequently talk about.
Writing has been a tremendous exercise in meditation, memory, and consistency. It’s a habit that enables you to focus on something and increase the effect it has on your life.
Simply thinking (and writing) about positively affecting the lives of others in what I do on a consistent basis has made it a pillar of my life. I don’t just talk about it. It’s natural. It’s just what I do and what comes to mind in many situations.
I owe this to the commitment to write every week. Looking back, it would be overwhelming to consider producing the amount of words (I estimate somewhere in the range of 150,000) that I have produced since beginning this blog. Now, it’s just part of my routine and I am very grateful that it’s still enjoyable.
How to Document Thoughts
“Bob, how do you come up with topics every week?”
I have received this questions numerous times in the past couple weeks. I suppose things are getting noticed more (this is great!). My answer is simple.
We are bombarded with stimuli all day long. I have somewhat of a mental filter that catches phrases and concepts that I hear. Without fail, when I “catch” a thought, I document it.
In a recent Twitter thread, someone asked about organizing and keeping track of ideas to use for producing content. I explained that I have an Excel document on my phone that I use to store my ideas. It has multiple columns; podcast, blog, video, live, book, and fantasy (yes I keep track of ideas for fantasy sports, should I been hesitant to share that?).
It’s vitally important for me to “catch” ideas in the moment. There are too many things running through my head and too many responsibilities that can distract me from developing thoughts around a topic.
Most importantly, I type the thought into it’s proper column as soon as I hear, see, or think of it (or as soon as I can if my phone is not available).
Secondly, I cite the source. This is for two reasons. I have to be able to go back to the source when I want to write about the subject and I also need to give credit to the source when producing a blog entry (or any other form of content).
Finally, a very helpful practice in documenting is to describe the situation you are in when something comes up. What were you doing? Where were you? Who was there? These help with recall - especially when you have a thousand ideas (you’d be surprised how quickly they add up).
No idea is a bad one. Just put them down. You don’t have to use it.
There are other tools like Notion that can help you organize thoughts. The classic spreadsheet just works the best for me.
A bonus tip is to have scheduled reviews of what you’ve documented. This helps to keep ideas fresh, implement lessons consistently, and also highlight what was the most impactful.
Trust the Process
For my sports analogy of the week, I call on the cliche phrase for any team that is “rebuilding” its roster in hope of contending for a championship in future years.
Today’s “now” culture makes it hard to wait years for success. How did the Cubs go over a hundred years between championships? That was quite a rebuild.
Players, coaches, and executives of a sports franchise that is struggling might say, “Trust the process.” They are trying to indicate that they are doing what they need to have success in the future and that their current lousy record is acceptable. Fans and the media might not agree.
History shows that most teams do not suddenly become contenders. It takes a few years of good drafting and other offseason transactions to turn things around. It might be my “sportsman clock”, but I liken my writing efforts to this. It takes a year to really change things and develop new habits.
We are currently in the “second season” of E-Impact. I learned a lot after the first and I hope to keep learning. I have to trust the process and can’t expect a monumental single event or entry to change the whole movement.
Just Start
I encourage you to write regardless of your situation. You don’t have to be a professional author, part-time blogger, or media person. It’s just a healthy thing to do. You don’t even have to publish what you write.
Journaling is a great practice to get your thoughts out. You may think what’s in your mind is good enough. But, fleshing out your thoughts on paper (or digital paper) is a very healthy and educational exercise.
I didn’t always want to read the books I had to to get my awards. However, I didn’t even realize the real, long-term rewards I would get from that habit.
Writing as a habit is a process. It’s something you have to trust will provide benefits over time.
In some ways, reading has become “too slow” for many of us. We listen to podcasts and watch short on-demand videos to get information or entertainment.
So, if reading a book takes too long, I can’t imagine the waste of time writing a book would be?
That’s a strange question from someone who’s about the publish a book (“Personal Finance in a Public World”). There were definitely times in the past year that I felt I was spending too much time writing. But, I stuck with it (sometimes to the chagrin of my wife). It’s been worth it because of the broad reaching benefits, not any specific lesson.
The real lesson is:
Just start!
Start writing and keep doing. Even if it’s just a small amount.
5 Simple Writing Habits
Here are some ways to write that don’t require a lot of planning and don’t have parameters to prevent consistency.
Daily journaling before bed - relaxing, helps with gratitude, recaps lessons from the day
Weekly blogging - more story based, fleshes out deeper topics, enables you to share and build reputation
Tweeting ten times daily- trains short concise thinking, allows for engagement and discussions, reaches an unlimited amount of people, builds community
Note-taking - captures thoughts in the moment, builds critical thinking skills, helps with memory
Interviewing - builds confidence, trains critical thinking and asking questions, develops relationships, builds a network
Pick one of these and trust the process.
I can’t believe I am going to say this but don’t set output goals. Don’t expect to learn anything specific or special.
You can set an input goal; such as, “I will blog every week for 52 straight weeks” but that’s it.
This way you are more concentrated on the habit as opposed to the result.
Growing as You Go
Now is the time in the blog when I retract half of what I said. Haha.
I can’t completely avoid the desire for improvement.
As you write (and read, which is absolutely necessary for writing), you will be building a skill.
James Clear’s plateau of latent potential certainly applies here as you trust the process. It’s a concept I’ve wrote in E-Impact about before and it comes up in my book. But, here we are going to acknowledge the immediately recognizable benefits.
Writing’s immediate benefit is educational. Last week’s E-Impact 67 compared the theoretical to the practical and stated that they are both important. Writing will help you develop the former for just about anything you like.
In addition to all the benefits that I’ve mentioned so far, you can also write to learn and share about something in your personal or professional life. Pick a topic you have expertise in or one in which you would like.
There’s your immediate benefit. You’re multitasking - in a good way.
Trust the process and grow as you go.
Writing is winning.