Writing

I have been thinking about this recently and find it kind of funny. I think about a scene in "Marley & Me", when Owen Wilson is talking about taking on a column. He talks about all the things he could write about and potential topics that could come up for his column, one of which he says, "I wrote a column about writing." This has recently come up in my head and I feel is a fitting end to another arbitrary collective belief of the human construct of time, aka the end of the year. It is not that I don't have other topics to write about, trust me, you don't want to see my chicken scratch of a blog idea notebook. It is that I want to share my process and mindset. Let's talk.

So, I've been pondering the idea of writing more so recently as I've had a few people ask me why I write, or what I write about, or even how I write. These are all valid questions and ones I have pondered myself. I will try to address each of them. I have just finished the book "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. Great book if you're looking for a kick in the shorts to overcome your mental blocks. He talks about concepts like resistance, the muse, structure, and much more. So, in terms of why I write the answer is fairly straight forward. If you know me at all, which you may not, I am a verbal processor. I like to talk through ideas and thoughts in order to further my understanding of them. I am also a very outgoing person and would strike up a conversation with a tree if I thought it would help me further understand the meaning to life (which is there even a meaning to life?). So, I started writing as a place to help me process. I wrote about anything and everything that came to my mind. Things that frustrated me at my job, ideas I heard in books that I read, or even just helping to calm my mind from the ceaseless thinking that I experience on a daily basis. I think that this still holds true for me today. I write to help process and I write to clear my head. I write about topics I enjoy and I don't know that I could write about things I don't have an interest in. No one's telling me what to say or how to say it and I have zero intention of trying to get paid to write. My why is fairly straightforward. Improve myself through writing.

Onto the how... now this one is an interesting one and I will be referencing the war of art, but also my main man David Goggins. In the book, Steven Pressfield talks about resistance. Resistance in the feeling of not wanting to do the thing that you know you should or have to do. We all feel this resistance in many areas of our lives, work, social obligations, achieving a new goal, hobbies, etc. It tells us hey, sit on the couch, you deserve a break, have some comfort with a side of ice cream. It's the reason we stagnate in life, it's the reason we stop progressing, it's the reason our relationships fall apart, it's the bad guy sitting on your shoulder telling you to stop. In the words of David Goggins, it's your inner bitch. As I'm writing this right now I can feel the instinct to stop or go get ready or change the course of my morning to access some comfort. Yet, here I am writing this article as I know I'm probably going to be late to get a coffee with my friend. We have to overcome this voice to get to doing the things we know are good for us. That is part one. Part two of how goes a bit darker.

II have never really understood this and heard Goggins talk about it as well, so I'm starting to be. able to articulate it better. Writing for me comes from a place of emotion. Sometimes that emotion is confusion, anger, joy, but often times pain and sadness. When I first started writing back when I was a young immature piece of junk (now an old immature piece of junk) I built a writing playlist on YouTube (because I didn't and wouldn't pay for Sporify at the time). This playlist included pretty much every sad song you could thing of. It was a source of motivation for me. It allowed me to put myself into a mindset of pain, into a mindset of suffering. Where I found ideas flowed and processing happened. It allowed me to write in times where I didn't want to write and allowed me to pull up ideas and concepts that I had been struggling to think about. I think that is because growth comes from discomfort. Growth comes from a place of not being a "fat, happy, and complacent" human being. I think we have to go into these darker and uncomfortable places to reflect and learn from them as well as use them as a driving force. Whether that be regret, resentment, heartbreak, loss, depression, anything! I don't think its good to dwell in these spaces, but I think in order to access some of that information or allow yourself to understand how the idea that come from that time resonated with you, you often have to go back to the dark place. Trust me, I've been being fueled by some fairly traumatic experiences in my life and it is a scary place to go back to. Yet, this is where we need to go sometimes, to find the fuel, to explore an idea, to understand more of how we became who we are. Do not dwell in this place, but find it as a source of power, a source of wisdom, a source of motivation.

Lastly, the what. This one is also fairly simple. How I choose a topic or where I get ideas from is almost exactly the same as where Owen got his from. He wrote about his life! He wrote about his experiences and things he heard or was interested in. If you didn't know, I am a traveller. I've been to 24 countries, Ive lived and seen many places in the U.S. I have an infinite list of hobbies that never seems to stop growing. I feel I am also a genuinely curious person. In that I will talk to anyone about almost anything. From these experiences and interactions I find ideas come. I take those ideas and put them into a note on my phone and I then slowly develop them or force myself into writing about them to try to create a fully blown article from a few words written down. I never know when an idea will come and I don't do things in hopes that an activity or a conversation would spark an idea to write about. I truly believe that I write because I enjoy it and I write about things I like, or ideas that I'm working through.

So, in conclusion (short one today, nice) I think that writing has been a part of my life for almost a decade now. In some capacity I have tried to maintain and continually write in order to help myself. I think that writing also has the capacity and the ability to help us become the best versions of ourselves. It allows you to articulate your thoughts better, it allows you to process ideas, and it allows you to learn to communicate in a way that not only resonates with people, but allows them to understand you and your voice. I think we all could benefit from writing more. Not that it needs to be on a public blog, not that anyone needs to see it, and not that we all need to become famous published authors. I feel that writing is a fundamental piece of our existence, dating all the way back to cavemen times (if you believe that). Step outside your comfort zone, choose the path of most resistance, challenge your ideas, face your deepest fears.... and then write about it.

On purpose,

Matt