Writing for the most important audience: yourself

and launching a 14 day writing challenge

Stay around for the ✨Afterword✨ if you’re interested in signing up for a 14 day reflective writing challenge that I’m hosting starting November 15th….

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A frantic hum, unsettling and intrusive.

3/11/23 Journal Entry: I just watched a bee fly into my hoodie. I’m panicking inside. What if it stings me? My gut response was to stand up and get the f*** inside. I’m petrified but have never been so focused in the present in my entire life. As I regroup myself by inhaling the 56 degree San Francisco air, I’m ready to write/flow.

Similar to this encounter with a bee, my daily writing practice forces me into an immediate confrontation with the now. It’s transformed the ordinary into something extraordinary and helps me find clarity amid daily life. 

By showing you a glimpse into my writing journey, I hope to convince you that you can find more daily depth through writing too. 

Slowly Falling in Love (With Writing)

When Professor Olsen nudged me to reflect on my final semester at Cornell, I accepted the challenge. She awakened a fear that runs much deeper than bees - forgetting the moments and memories that mean the most to me in the current moment. 

What would this all be for if I forgot about the rich details of playing baseball for my alma mater?

A month before I hung up the baseball cleats for the rest of my life…

What about the times with my family and closest friends? This fear led me to start my journaling habit.

The term ‘journaling’ makes me sick. It has an air to it, a stigma of sorts.  It’s like eating our vegetables… We know they’re good for us but not as tasty as other dopamine-filled hobbies. 

That semester, I only ate my vegetables 37 times (out of 180+ days). 

Between my first entry and graduation, I wrote in that Black leather Castelli journal a mere 37 times. An underwhelming 21.5% of my final days on campus.  

But that’s because I hadn’t discovered the hidden value of returning to those pages yet and didn’t have systems to keep me accountable with my writing habit…

How it Started: Connecting Through Writing

Before I started broadcasting my words to the world, I wrote for myself. For 5 years. 

This intimate phase of scribbling thoughts was just for me. I started construction of my little world, hidden from prying eyes and uncolored by external opinions. 

My habit gained momentum when backpacking through Israel and Europe for 2 months post graduation. Only through the process of reflecting back on those entries that I realized something…

I’d deepened my process of self discovery, through writing. It reminded me of the Czech Inn’s lobby wall, softly whispering wisdom to any guest that would listen… 

Travel so far that you meet yourself. 

And if I open up a competing hostel one day, maybe I’ll etch these words on the wall.

Write so deeply that you meet yourself

But before I could write deeply and freely, I had to experiment widely. I dabbled with different formats (5 minute journal, gratitude journals), different mediums (analog vs. digital), different times of day, etc. etc. 

I momentarily became obsessed with documenting one “standout moment” / moment I want to remember forever thanks to this TED Video. Even if it was often an emotion, an observation, or just a mundane event. 

The joy of revisiting those entries is immeasurable. I created my own time machine, one that took me to those exact moments, allowing me to relive them with an unprecedented vividness. 

How it’s going: Mindful writing

Now when I sit down to write, it becomes an exercise in mindfulness. *Unslouches, sits upright in chair with proper posture, and takes sharp inhale inwards from the diaphragm*

It’s not just about recording events or jotting down thoughts. It’s become a journey to immerse myself completely in each very moment, to expand my awareness, to truly ‘see’ the world around me while introspecting about my own internal world. 

Of the hundreds of reasons writing is central to my life, here’s 4 fundamental truths of why writing lights my heart on fire:

1. I want to remember memories from my life 20 years ago with the fidelity of yesterday.

2. I want to be remembered as somebody who was deeply present, observed each of life’s mosaic details with clarity, attention, and wonder. 

3. I want to discover deeper, truer, better versions of myself and writing is the medium by which I discover him most often

4. I need some mechanism to process daily life - I’m inundated with media and have 100,000+ thoughts a day. There’s something cathartic to letting thoughts spill onto a page, then observing what I just unearthed

Writing has made the mundane magical. Isn’t life just a collection of ordinary moments? 

The power of writing lies in its ability to transform these ordinary moments into extraordinary memories. The pen really is mightier than the written word. 

Conclusion

If wisdom truly is metabolized life experience, and if life experience can only be accrued by being deeply present, then writing is the tool that allows me to harvest the vast wisdom within. 

Writing is much more than just words on a page. It’s been my compass, guiding me towards a life of depth and introspection. 

Sure, part of the reason it’s special is because I get to communicate telepathically with you. Consistently publishing my ideas has transformed my career and life…

But you know what’s a better starting point than writing online?

Writing for the most important audience… yourself. 

Viewing writing as a meditation. Practicing connecting every thought, feeling, opinion… the good, the bad, and the ugly that rests within us. 

That, as a practice, will enrich your life in immeasurable ways. 

✨Afterword✨

If you’ve been wanting to build your own reflective writing habit, I’m co-hosting a 14 day Writing Reflective Challenge starting November 15th. It includes:

1. Daily Writing: Prompted questions + reflections

2. Templates built for your desired platform (Notion, Google Docs, Apple Notes)

3. Learning the art of a solo date (led by Holly Bossung from Good Surroundings)

4. Accountability group

5. Text Nudges - uplifting messages, tactical practices, and helpful reminders

6. Kickoff call to set everyone up for success

7. Weekly calls to recap the week with end-of-week tailored reflections)

8. BONUS - assisted prompts to help unearth unique patterns in your writing and instill deeper reflections

I’m capping it to the first ~15-20 people who express interest, so if you want to join, respond to this email “interested” or follow the steps at this link to complete the (small) payment.

Hope to see you there.

If you’re inspired to start your reflective habit today, why not start with the 3 questions below? 

1. What brought you enthusiasm today?

2. What drained you of energy today?

3. What did you learn about yourself today?

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