Purpose
-I will continue to give the world the best thoughts I have to offer. They won’t all be great thoughts, but enough of them will be.
-I hope that my writing can be a source of wisdom and comfort.
-The things I write in my blog aren’t a reflection of how I think or behave at all times. They’re a reflection of my desire to balance myself out. Those posts are reminders to myself.
-Have a message that outlives you. Part of what that means is being comfortable with not receiving recognition during your lifetime. Have a message that is bigger than yourself, including your desire for praise.
-The most honest writing happens when you don’t care about getting credit for it.
-Writing to yourself is the best kind of writing, because then you know you really mean it. There’s no pretension in it and no attempt to deceive.
-Some of my writing is me fighting with myself.
-How would you feel about your writing if you didn’t get paid for it and nobody ever read it? How would that change what you do? What would you write if you had to write it anonymously? Those are the words that are really yours (though you might still lie to yourself).
-Don’t write for the masses, write for just one. Don’t write for money, write because it’s important.
-Don’t write for money. Write to learn, to express, and to teach.
-Chasing money isn’t as fun or rewarding as chasing hearts and minds.
-When writing becomes too much like work, the enjoyment is lost. So is noble intent. When paying bills is the motivation for your writing, you’ll hold back.
-A blog is essentially an online journal. That’s how I think of it. It doesn’t matter how long your posts are. Nor do you need to provide citations for every assertion you make.
-A writer is just a regular person trying to get thoughts down on paper.
-We have plenty of doom and gloom writers, and plenty of pie in the sky writers. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Be a writer of truth.
-The purpose of writing is to make change, in yourself and in others. Sit down and write — you might change a life.
Imperfection
-It would be nice to blow people away every time you write something, but you likely won’t. The main thing is that it’s useful. It won’t always be novel either. Usually it will be reminders. Nobody is so brilliant that they can blow readers away with a new idea every time. If you write often, you’ll produce your fair share of great ideas. Even to say something old in a new way can be useful.
-I hope the thoughts I share publicly through my writing make sense and are helpful to someone. It helps me to do it. Hopefully it helps others too. I’m going to be wrong sometimes in the things I write. That’s the way it is. If you express yourself a lot, you’re bound to be wrong a fair amount of the time. But I’m committed to being less wrong. And I think I’ve done a good job of making that improvement little by little.
-The only blog posts and books I’m able to write are imperfect ones. I’ll write them anyway.
-I write what I’ve learned, but I’m not as good at doing what I’ve learned as I am at writing about it.
-If what you want to write seems trite, write it anyway. Don’t assume that people already know it. Don’t be surprised if someone thanks you for writing what you thought didn’t need to be written. What is clear to you, isn’t clear to everyone. Besides, everyone needs reminders.
-Don’t try to prove that everything you write is true. It’s good to give examples and provide references, but it’s not necessary to do that every time, or even most of the time.
-I can’t possibly have a perfect record as a writer. I’m going to be wrong sometimes. But hopefully I’m providing some insights that are true and helpful.
-Your ideas aren’t as brilliant as you think they are. But that doesn’t make them worthless. They might still be worth sharing.
-You don’t have to use everything you’ve written. It’s not all gold. And you don’t need to save or salvage everything you’ve written. Write the next thing instead.
Expression
-It feels good to write down your thoughts. It’s great therapy and you learn more about yourself.
-Journalling can help keep you straightened out. It helps to see your own words. And when you publish them, it creates accountability. You’re more likely to hold yourself to the assertions you’ve made. Though that can be a bad thing if the assertions you made were wrong.
-Writing is a bit like exercise, in that you don’t always want to do it, but you feel better after you’ve done it. Same thing with reading.
-Not everything you write is worth publishing, but it’s worth writing.
-Try not to hold back what you really think. Save that for the editing process. Exceptions to that are things that might be hurtful to other people if they were to read them. They might read your journal or rough drafts after you die. A remedy for that is to destroy such sensitive writings immediately after you write them.
-It’s hard to write without filters, but that’s the best way to do the first draft. Editing can be done later. Potential embarrassment holds the writer back from full expression, even in draft form, because of the fear that someone might read it before it gets edited.
-Why bother writing if you’re not going to break any of the rules. Artists break rules. That’s how you give the world something different. People want you to put into words what they can’t put into words themselves. They’re looking for someone to express what they’ve been feeling so they don’t feel alone and to make those feelings easier to confront.
-If you have a unique point of view, there are people out there who want to hear from you. They’re wondering if they are alone.
-Safe writing is dead writing. You have to be willing to express yourself in the face of potential rejection. Write what needs to be written, while you still can.
-The world doesn’t need your raw authenticity. Be real, but clean yourself up a bit.
-Write without intention. What your writing is for can be decided later. Write what is in you.
Audience
-I write to the other versions of myself out there who are unknowingly waiting for the right message at the right time. There’s no way that anything I write can be for everyone at the same time. It’s meant for certain people at certain times.
-Cynicism attracts a cynical audience — an audience that won’t trust or respect you. Because after all, they’re cynics.
-Every messenger has an audience, however small that audience might be. If you don’t speak up, you’ll have no audience. Every day is another opportunity to help those who are waiting to hear from you.
-How are you gong to make it as a writer in today’s market if you’re not going to differentiate yourself? You have to be unique. It’s more fun and more fulfilling that way anyway.
-Writing to yourself is likely going to be your most honest writing. And that’s what people need. And when people know that you’re not preaching to them, they’re more likely to consider your point of view.
-Put your soul into your writing and let the critics say what they want. Let them waste their time futilely trying to tear down what they don’t understand.
-Your writing isn’t for everyone. It’s for who it’s for.
-Not everything I write is for everyone, but everyone can find something useful that I’ve written.
-Your job as a writer isn’t to please the masses, but you should keep the masses in mind. Be mindful of the fact that not everyone is like you and that not everyone has the same advantages or disadvantages as you. Be careful about making absolute statements. Don’t try to please everyone, but be careful not to make people feel like crap.
-The best audience for a blog is an audience that will allow you to write what you really think. They won’t run away or attack you. They’ll try to learn from what you’ve written. And if what you’ve written something nonsensical, they’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, knowing that you won’t always write nonsense.
-The relationship between a writer and his or her audience is more intimate than it seems. You realize this when readers start sending you letters.
-One of my fears as a writer is losing readers as my message evolves. But what is the point of writing if it’s not to help you grow? What’s the point of having readers if it’s not to help them grow with you? You’ll lose some along the way, but the ones that stick with you are worth writing for.
-Don’t try to guess what readers want. Give them what you would want.
Flow
-Writing is more fun when it’s not forced. Almost everything is better that way.
-Writing can be a spiritual experience when it’s the product of letting go.
-Don’t put too many expectations on yourself as a writer. Writing is personal and best when allowed to flow.
-The times when I hate writing are when I’m trying to write something. The times when I love writing are when it happens on its own.
-Writing is most enjoyable when it’s not a job. No quotas, no deadlines, no pressure to make money, etc.
-Writing what you think isn’t hard. Publishing it is. If it’s hard to write down, maybe you don’ t really believe it. If you believe it, you won’t need to force yourself to write it.
-Ten years from now you’ll likely disagree with many of the things you’ll write this year. Write anyway. You and your readers will still benefit. Try to be less wrong too, not by saying nothing, but by being willing to keep learning as you go.
-Writing is much more fun when it comes naturally and easily. If you’re struggling to write something, you probably don’t need to write it. If you’ve got nothing, you’ve go nothing, and that’s okay. Go do something else for awhile. The best is when things hit you out of the blue and you can’t wait to find a pen or pencil. That will be your best stuff. Like anything you’re trying to figure out in life, you have to start by letting go. “I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me.” (Einstein)
-Write with a silent mind.
Process
-Set aside some time. Set aside distractions. Turn your inner dialogue off, and wait. That is the discipline of writing. If you’ll do that everyday you’ll be prolific.
-You can sit around counting views and likes, or you can create the next thing. Get back to the work of serving others. The work of bringing your best ideas and best self to the world. Less time counting beans, more time making them. Less strategy, more generosity.
-There are some jobs that nobody can stop you from doing. Writing is one of those jobs. Writing is easy to do, but it’s not easy to do well.
-If you could write down all of the thoughts you’ve ever had they would fill volumes. There must be something in there worth writing down and sharing with the world.
-One of the elements of good writing is knowing when to stop. Don’t ramble on.
-I find it more useful and more enjoyable to focus on the amount of time I put into writing, instead of the number of words I write. I tend to be economical with my words anyway, so the number of words I write in a day isn’t that important. But it is important to put in the time — to sit with my silence and see what wants to come out. If you put in the time, you’ll find lots of things to write about. Maybe not everyday, but over time it adds up.
-For a writer there are no wasted experiences. Everything that happens to you or that you observe in your life is potential writing material. At some point you have to sit down and do the writing though.
-Even your biggest setbacks in life are writing opportunities. Everything that happens to you, short of removing your ability to write, is a writing opportunity. The more experiences you have, the more you have to write about. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.” (Benjamin Franklin)
-If you get your writing done early you’ll feel better.
-Don’t use more words than you need to.
-Trust the process of sitting with your silence, waiting for what wants to be written. Put in the time and the rest will take care of itself.
-It’s not possible to run out of things to write. You’ll have periods of stagnation, that’s all. Just keep coming back to your notebook. The faucet will start dripping again eventually.
-If someone were to give you a blueprint or a how-to guide for being a better writer, it would lack your own intuition. It would prevent you from creating art.
-Being long-winded might make you feel like you’re saying something important or novel, but quality isn’t determined by quantity.
-You don’t build trust by showing up once. And the best way to earn trust is through being consistently competent.
Living With Confidence 