Writing did not become a sudden passion or hobby of mine.

In fact, I never enjoyed writing when I was growing up, nor is it something I describe as a “passion”.

What writing is to me is a tool. I began writing because I saw it as a way to help myself improve.

An avenue to share my ideas with others, to have those ideas challenged, and to improve myself through feedback.

I love writing because it helps me build confidence, discover who I truly am, learn faster, and allows me to share ideas.

1. Confidence

Few things have had as large of an impact on my confidence and outlook as writing for one reason: Consistency.

The ability to be consistent, and gain compounding returns on your work, is the most powerful tool we have as humans.

I didn’t realize that I was truly capable of being consistent until I started writing.

As I saw the progress pile up, and my article list lengthen, I knew that I had the ability to accomplish any task I set my mind to.

That discovery is an incredibly powerful feeling, because you realize that anything is possible.

2. Self Discovery

We all have many versions of ourselves.

The person who we are when we’re with our the family.

The person we are when we spend time in friends.

The person that we bring to work every day.

And finally, the person that we are when we’re alone.

The thoughts and ideas you share with one group may not be the same. But they should be.

To align your thoughts, you need to discover who you truly are which can be a tough process. One of the best ways to do it though is to constantly put yourself out there.

Publish your ideas for everyone to see. When you do that, you can only be one person – Your true self.

3. Learning

Writing is a critical skill to learn and master for anyone who values communication, which in my opinion should be everybody.

The best way to learn anything is by creating a short feedback cycle.

Think about learning a basic skill like juggling. When you make a mistake, you drop a ball and immediately know what you did wrong.

The same goes with writing, but to get that feedback loop you can’t write in a vacuum.

You need to write out in the open. Publish your thoughts. Listen to people praise you. Critique you. Or most likely, ignore you.

Receiving feedback is the absolutely best way to improve.

4. Sharing

One of the greatest things about being human is our ability to share ideas.

At our current point in the history of the world, there are more ideas out there than any of us could ever consume.

So instead of coming up with completely new ideas (because that is next to impossible), the focus instead is around curating what is already out there.

Drawing lines between dots that people haven’t seen before.

Using a new method to express and old concept.

Sharing your own progress and your journey, so you can encourage and educate others.

The best thing about sharing ideas, is that people will reach back out and share their own.

If anything I wrote here resonates, let me know!