It was on the afternoon of December 31, 2013, to write a small pad of paper, before celebrating the end of the year with my family, I started to create the opportunity to have the life I wanted, out of anxiety, and close what gave me more pleasure to perform.
That year, I had made arrangements for my professional situation changed. I began to feel I was fulfilling my role in the world, and not spending more than half the day in a meaningless occupation for my career.
You can say, "What I do today has nothing to do with writing ... What good does writing all day can bring me?"
This doubt prevents many people from starting. Just pick up a piece of paper and a pen and write.
But…
No matter WHAT you will write: it is a paragraph, diary, poem, article 500 words, 5,000 words, or some pro your book pages.
No matter WHERE you write: it is a notepad, notebook, calendar, computer program, or smartphone app; whether at home, in the office, at the coffee shop around the corner or on the park bench.
No matter WHEN you write: If you wake up at five in the morning to have the silence of the house to concentrate better, at lunch at work, on the bus on the way back home, or the book before going to bed.
What matters is to write a little every day, on any issue that motivates you, where you feel more at ease to it, within your limits, always trying to extend it a bit, and when you have a few minutes to devote To this.
Summarize how was your day a few lines in a notebook before bed, for example. Try this for a week and see how you feel.
The habit of writing every day brings many benefits. The most amazing is that they are not necessarily linked to what you write, but the fact that you create the habit.
What are the benefits you get when going to write every day?
1 - COACHING YOUR DISCIPLINE
When I was a kid, I did the best about my discipline has been practicing judo for a year, and then volleyball. But I confess that I really dedicated myself to being the best. Now looking back, I see that I did not too seriously. Over time, I realized how things would have been a little easier if I had trained more my discipline from an early age. I ended up learning the hard way: in pain.
When you get used to write a little every day, not to be a few lines, you will gradually become a more disciplined person, because you see the results in the medium and long term.
Just be careful with expectations, to not want to give up soon. Building the necessary discipline to keep standing even in storms, it takes time and requires dedication, patience and persistence.
2 - SHARPEN YOUR FOCUS
Let's say you already know what your main focus in life, personal and / or professional. If you do not write about it, maybe the ideas become wandering through your mind, the files on your computer, the conversations and nothing happens (or takes longer than necessary for things to happen).
From the moment you get used to write every day about your focus, or on matters related to it, the thoughts are revealed and go to a structure that makes you think better.
It's like you understand better after reading what he wrote like say the American writer Flannery O'Connor "I write because I do not know what I think until I read what I say."
3 - ENCOURAGE PRODUCTIVE HABITS
When you start to write a little every day, you use your brain in a way unusual. Get out of the comfort zone, because discipline to exercise the mind.
Some studies go further: hand-write improves your cognitive activity and makes you even more intelligent. "The benefits of brain development are similar to those you have when learning to play a musical instrument. Not everyone can pay for music lessons, but everyone has a pen and paper. " As a result you increase your level of self-knowledge, and start new habits that make you well - and this varies from person to person.
In my case writing made improvements to my reading habits, made me learn more, and thus take better care of health, physical activities, and get away from what was doing me wrong before. A habit stimulates the other.
4 - ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE AND PASS
If your focus is or is not personal, if your beach is fiction or non-fiction, it makes no difference: somehow you learned some skill. Had access to books you have chosen to read, courses you selected, finally, you got teachings.
I strongly believe that we are in the world to share, and that includes knowledge. It is a great pleasure for me, it brings me joy and fulfillment, knowing that you are here reading this text and learning, maybe a little with him. All the people who helped him as a coach or through my articles brought me great happiness.
When you pass on to others the knowledge you have learned, and see how it makes a difference, certainly learn new and even greater lessons, and increases your level of self-knowledge.
5 - CREATING PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
Who knows what can happen in your professional life if you are willing to write every day? By doing so, you open doors only for putting part of its reasoning on paper.
In my case, new career opportunities have arisen from my first blog. This is one of the best tools to demonstrate what you write to people, and publish periodic articles. You can choose your best texts, or work for a few days in a good article, and show to your blog, to people know what you do.
Once open space for my career as a coach start, parallel to that I had as a computer programmer, opportunities began to emerge. Later I realized that I had become a speaker and writer of 4 e-books. Everything from the desire I had to show to friends that text I wrote on the last day of 2013, publishing a free and simple blog the next day, and exercising writing regular habit in the weeks that followed.
6 - ESTABLISH A PLATFORM FOR YOUR VOICE
Having a blog is one way of having a platform to voice in this world today where one tries to speak louder than the other - although not the amount that matters, but with whom you speak. Other platforms for your voice are e-books, videos, podcasts ... And all these media need someone to write your content before.
By positioning properly and talk to the right people, who are waiting for you to lead and bring a solution, you ensure your platform without relying only on social media that the day they leave the air or give some other problem, take your content together. Its platform is yours alone, and nobody else, until the day that you do not want more ..
Also, having a platform for your voice creates the opportunity for you to have your own business, to undertake through a blog, creating courses or sell your e-books, for example.
7 - IMPROVE YOUR VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSION YOUR ORAL
When you do NOT write, it is because a kind of laziness dominated you. Sometimes it comes a difficulty communicating with others, not knowing describe feelings or simply tell something happened. At the time of speaking, is so much at the same time in your head, in a way so dysfunctional, you can not articulate right what I would say. The regular writing habit trains your communication and makes you think better BEFORE speaking.
Other than that, says my writer friend, "write every day makes our vocabulary increases, because we need to get the right words, which perfectly fit in the text. This in turn aids in oral communication and take that tight skirt of only using "like so" "that thing", "know how". His speech is more elegant and articulate, and draws attention positively.
8 - BEST SUPPORTING THE DIFFICULT SITUATIONS IN LIFE
There was a study done with engineers who were laid off, and got a new job more quickly because they engaged in writing periodically. The researcher says that "those who wrote about their feelings because they lost their jobs reported feeling less anger and hostility against his former employer. They also said they had drunk less alcohol. Eight months later, less than 19% of those who did not write were readmitted compared to 52% of the group who practiced writing ".
9 - FINALLY WRITE THAT BOOK YOU PROMISED YOUR LIFETIME THAT WOULD WRITE
What else is there are people promising "one day I'll even write a book." To most, that day never comes.
You know why? Of course, right? Because the person does not practice writing.
Writing a book is not a 100-meter sprint, but a marathon. Set the topic, separate what will be said in every chapter, and start gradually, day after day.
Set a goal to write two pages a day. Even that does not come "idea" or that do not download "inspiration". If you wait for it, you will never start.
It is religiously fulfilling this simple goal of X pages a day, that great writers write more than one book per year (the suspense master Stephen King is famous for writing 2,000 words a day). Never mind then think about publishing, publicity, money, reviews, how many people will read ...
Place the hands on (or rather, the pen or the keyboard of your computer), and bring it on.
When you put your feelings on a blank sheet, it becomes easier to deal with them - work a way to overcome the pain instead of trying to block it.
The ideal is not to force yourself to write in a difficult time - you can even make things worse - but the habit comes naturally, and you feel that writing can be a kind of escape valve, the benefits are clear.
10 - ASSESS HOW WAS THE DAY BEFORE WRITING TO SLEEP
How many times have you been sleeping worried, sad, upset, thinking of the problems that did not solve that day?
An interesting solution to this, that worked for me is to write in a notebook all events and relevant learning's that day, and also 3 things or people for which you are grateful. In this way, you make a swing that really got to solve the next day, recalls what brought you some learning, good or bad, and still can be programmed better on the tasks to be performed the next day.
As for gratitude, try if you have not done this exercise, and then tell me how it was. Go to bed with a feeling of gratitude in the heart relieves insomnia.
11 - FEELING YOU GAVE, EVERY DAY, ANOTHER STEP IN YOUR DIRECTION OBJECTIVE
This benefit is related to the number 10, because every day that you do your personal self-evaluation, if you are even writing every day (or periodically), you will realize that is giving birth to something there. A new job, your first book, e-book, blog, or you might be using the writing habit as a daily, relying on your routine, how you felt, what you have learned, and what will make the next day to it is even better.
There are few sensations equal or better than knowing that you are getting closer to realizing a goal that once seemed impossible. It is one step at a time, a few lines a day, you will reach that before you saw as unattainable.
You may be surprised with the result, even today still do not have a big clear goal in mind. When you commit yourself to the habit of writing regularly, the unexpected happens and can bring you great joy and surprises.