Why do I start writing?

Recently a friend of mine went through a serious challenge that called into question his very survival. He was diagnosed with cancer and from that moment his life was never the same again.

After seeing such incredible changes, I asked myself: what prevents me from trying the same life approach? Do I really want to wait for what is to come or do I try to give life a little push?

I came up with more and more excuses as I thought about it.

In this article I’ll try to be honest with myself, and reveal the main reasons of my “excusist” behaviors.

I have hundreds of excuses why I should ‘not’ publish anything that I write.

Here are the top 5:

1. English is not my native language. Screw my Masters in French & English. I was always lazy and tried very hard to escape the chore of grammar studies. You’ve probably already noticed some mistakes by now.
2. You will judge my amateurish style. I would prefer to write scientific articles in sociology because nobody reads them anyway, rather than try my hand at witty inspiring writing, that really boils my blood. Am I even able to create something outside of the box? A text that would inspire others? All I do is make notes on my phone, on my laptop, and in my notebook every damn day. Is any of it worth anything?
3. I want to cover subjects that really matter. I look at authors who are just trying to follow mainstream trends, making the text plagiarism free and SEO friendly; I was afraid to become just another byline nobody reads.
4. Fear of being misinterpreted. Since I was 20, I actively started to seek an answer to the ultimate question ‘what’s the point of this life? In fact, it was way earlier, but starting from that chapter of my life I was trying to get deeper answers every day. I can’t say I reached the highest ‘heights’ in terms of answers, however, I definitely made some interesting revelations. Still, I wonder — does the world need to see reality through a prism of painful truth?
5. No time and inspiration. Every book I read gives me an instant desire to take a pencil and write my humble opinion. What stopped me? Internal scrutiny. Questions like ‘if the author is so good, what on earth could I possibly add?’ And ‘do I have a moral right to comment/add on these sages who know exactly what they’re talking about?’

The list may extend up to 100 different points. Instead, let me share with you 5 simple reasons why I made the decision to overcome my fears, write and eventually publish this article.

1. Conscious Positivity. If we analyze how many of our close relatives, friends and of course, we are depressed, it becomes scary. Every day someone dies (not necessarily from old age) and wars are still a bad habit of our society. General frustration followed by aggression is the norm, then add psychological issues, natural disasters, government negligence of its own people…Should I continue? To cut the story short, we lack positivity and empathy.
2. Critical thinking. Media are feeding us annoying ads, sitcoms to kill time, and news that kills everything. Even the most successful and positive personas are feeling depressed deep inside. Not surprisingly, their key to happiness is analyzing the nature of these states. Regardless of the digital revolution with audio/visual format, writing will remain the core of how people absorb information.
3. Unity as a strategy. Depending on your life’s goals, there are a lot of different ways to approach the strategy of cooperation with others. Millennials, generally speaking, tend to choose strategies aimed at uniting with others without discriminating race, ethnicity, language, or faith. However, with the media industry choking us with more and more ‘entertainment cookies’, we just pay less attention to our neighbors. So, if we just spread more words about uniting with others above all differences, being patient, tolerant, compassionate, It might have an impact! According to sociologists, we need a critical mass of 10% to launch this wave.
4. Challenging and organizing yourself! While, by now you might think that my reasons to write resemble utopia, here is a more practical, down to earth reasoning. Just f**ing do it! I mean, let’s be honest, if you publish an article, you want it to be nice and bring some value to society. When you commit yourself publicly, to write let’s say once a month, that’s a social obligation. At the least, this opportunity will make you think, read and analyze more.
5. Share your passion. It is almost a cliche among millennials, that you should be famous in order to change others’ lives and inspire them with subjects you’re passionate about. When you’re mindful about what you write it brings you a new level of self-consciousness. Mindfulness is an amazing tool and there is an ever-growing stack of scientific evidence showing the good it can bring to your life.

Summary

It’s always challenging to open your mind to the public. This is not just words, it took me a month to edit this article, you probably are seeing the 5th version. I think that even if small number of people would consider this inspiring, it’s worth trying.

The best appreciation would be comments to this article, or even better if you, the reader, start writing!