Imagine that you are called on to give a speech.
Perhaps it’s a toast to your daughter and her new husband at their wedding or any other family event that is a big deal. Previously, you would have stared at that blank page and had cold sweats.
But now?
You’ve been writing hundreds of words every day for months, practicing for an event just like this.
This time you know exactly what to do when faced with the need to give a speech.
You just start writing.
You realize that you don’t even really know what you’re going to say yet so you let the words, whatever they are, start coming out of your mind and onto the page. You’ve been facing down the daily challenge of writing for weeks or months and by this point you are like a trained athlete with strong writing and idea generating muscles.
With each draft you get more clarity and you refine the words like a pro.
The result?
Confidence.
The newlyweds will remember your speech as one of the most memorable of their lives and you’ll remember it as the best thing you’ve ever written. Random people whom you don’t know will compliment you on the speech.
Earn More Money
The people who get ahead in the world are the ones that can communicate in a clear and articulate manner.
Canadian Psychologist, Jordan Peterson says “The person who can formulate and communicate the best argument almost always wins. If you want a job, you have to make a case for yourself.
If you want a raise, you have to convince someone that you deserve it. If you are trying to convince someone of the validity of your idea, you have to debate its merits successfully, particularly if there are others with other competing ideas”.
The act of writing sharpens your ideas and clarifies your thinking. If forces you, in black and white, to put down your thoughts and arguments on the page. When you have words on the page you can edit and move them around and learn how to make your point or tell your story better.
This takes practice but daily writing exercises the muscle and over time, you’ll get stronger until you can outcompete your competition.
Better Health
So much stress comes from mental anxiety and ignorance. Depression can be developed when the weight of negative thoughts puts a burden on the soul. This impacts not only your mental health but begins drag you down physically.
When you are mentally burdened you don’t feel like meeting with friends, exercising or eating well.
Calling out and naming the pain can be huge relief. If there is a figure standing in the shadows it will cause you to fear because you don’t know what or who it is. Dragging that thing out into the light and exposing it makes it far less scary.
Now you can SEE it! It may still be there, but it’s no longer in the shadows. You can take action.
Writing forces, you to name it, expose it and deal with it.
Better Memory
When you write you are no longer a passive participant in life. You are now active and engaged because when you write about your life you are processing it.
Dustin Wax says that when we write we are “building a link between the spatial part of our brain that we need to use in order to make marks on paper that make sense (that is, to write) and the verbal part of our brain that we need to compose meaningful utterances to supply our writing hand with, we strengthen the process by which important information is stored in our memory.”
It’s impossible to remember everything in life. We’ll forget most of the little things that make life so meaningful.
It’s Better than Therapy
Have you ever sat with a trusted friend and poured your heart out to a listening ear?
When you were done you might have said “you’ve been so helpful!” to which your friend might have responded “I didn’t say anything!”.
I’m willing to bet that most of the time you don’t need advice, you need a non-judgmental listening ear.
The problem is, therapists are expensive and friends don’t always have the time to listen to your problems.
But a blank page and pen is free and is always willing to listen. You can pour out your heart with all its worries, fears, pain, hurts and anxieties and a piece of paper won’t judge or give bad advice. It will just listen.
If you need a safe place to write, I created a place called Write Every Day. Sign up for free today.