The Case for Writing
Three Point Essay #14 | Articulation, Anxiety Reduction, Action
Here’s a three-pointer, to open your mind.
The mission of “Three Pointers” & about the author here
Writing Makes You Articulate
The best way to teach people critical thinking is to teach them to write because there's no difference between that and thinking. If you can think and speak and write, you are absolutely deadly. Nothing can get in your way
—Jordan Peterson
Neil Degrasse Tyson is a famous scientist.
Among his many accolades:
Host of a podcast with 1.95 million YouTube subscribers
Featured on the #1 show in the world (Joe Rogan)
Estimated net worth of 7$ million
In an interview, Larry King asked Tyson how he is able to explain things so well.
His answer: “The majority of the things that come out of my mouth, I’ve already written down before.”
People become exceptional speakers by repeatedly clarifying their ideas with pen and paper.
It makes them articulate and persuasive.
The more you write, the more confidence you have when talking.
Why does it have this magic?
Tim Ferriss said that “writing is thought crystallized on paper, which can then be reviewed.”
When you write something down, it’s like capturing a thought and saving it. Many ideas or dreams that don’t get written down, get lost.
Writing creates a snowball effect of positive outcomes:
The more you save your thoughts, the stronger your memory becomes
The stronger your memory becomes, the better you recall facts and insights to talk about
The better you recall facts and insights to talk about, the more fluently you speak
The more fluently you speak, the more opportunities and respect you receive
The more opportunities and respect you receive, the higher quality of life you have
On and on and on.
How You Can Get Started Writing
All you have to do is write one sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.
—Ernest Hemingway
There’s an idea that journaling is the art of finding out what you believe.
Try it out:
Buy a journal
Honestly express your values, ideas, and vision
Consciously test out in the world
See which ones positively/negatively affect your well-being & relationships
Adjust accordingly
Ask yourself questions like:
What excites me?
What things do I care about the most?
What am I best at?
Who are my most trustworthy and loyal friends?
Who and what am I most grateful for?
What did I want to do with my life as a kid, before I let people tell me what I ‘should’ do?
The more you write, the clearer your mind will be. The pen is like a vacuum, sucking all the fog out of your brain.
Writing Reduces Your Anxiety
I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found.
—Kurt Vonnegut
Writing is the ultimate therapy.
There’s an idea from Jordan Peterson that, if old memories still haunt you, you should write them down.
He emphasizes writing them out carefully and completely.
Why would you want to write about negative experiences? Wouldn’t that make things worse?
‘The Backwards Law’ from Mark Manson states: The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. Paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.
The bad things that’ve happened in your life become worse when you run from them. Suppressing emotions is never the answer.
But by writing about them, you can finally accept them. You can begin to move on.
This idea supports a 2001 study from the Journal of experimental psychology.
It’s involves two groups of college students. One group wrote about a personal struggle or challenge in their life. The other group wrote about something impersonal, and of little value or importance.
The researchers concluded:
“Students who wrote about a negative personal experience enjoyed greater improvements and declines in intrusive thinking compared with students who wrote about a positive experience or a trivial topic.”
This supports what Peterson and Manson say about writings stress-relieving effects:
By seeing thoughts that bother you inked out on paper, they lose their power in your mind.
Through journaling, you got to the root of where the negative thoughts came from. You stare right at the nasty weed, and yank it out. Now, it can’t harass you any longer.
You’re finally free from it. Because you wrote about it.
Writing Makes You Actually Do What You Want To Do
The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.
—Lee Iacocca
Journaling is a way of making deals with yourself.
It’s too easy to talk about why you haven’t done something yet. Or why you haven’t stopped doing something yet.
You blame it on your past, on your current circumstances, or on other people.
You say you’re going to start doing things right, next week. And you say you’ll begin executing on that idea you have. It’s all going to happen soon!
Until it doesn’t.
Talk can be cheap.
But when you write stuff down…that changes everything.
Let’s say you write down that you are going to start stretching out every day.
A period of time goes by, and you still haven’t started stretching out every day.
Well, who do you have to blame for that?
No one but yourself.
You broke the deal. You weren’t disciplined enough. You’re responsible.
Think of your journal as a way of making contracts with yourself. Official contracts that have consequences if broken.
Doing this makes it easier to actually follow through on stuff. You start holding yourself accountable to doing the thing. Whatever the thing is.