Why You Should NOT Write

A while back, my friend started writing journals online, and I found this really interesting. What I envied most was his ability to stay consistent, which has always been a struggle for me. It might have been peer pressure because before long, I found myself writing my first piece. Obviously, I thought it was a decent enough piece and that more people should see it. As I was navigating the site, I realised one could monetize their account and start earning. Excited, I brought this up with my friend, and what he told me has stuck with me ever since. He said, ‘Don’t monetize; if you do, you will lose your drive to write,’ or something like that. At first, I thought, wouldn’t this motivate me to write more? It took a while for me to gather that he never meant I would lose the will to write; he meant I would lose my purpose to. How’s that, you ask?

I know they say if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life, but that is only so true. Having passion is one thing, but having purpose is another. It is such a beautiful thing when the two marry, but it is not something you can rush or force. I am not giving advice; I am just saying that first you need to be good enough at what you are passionate about, and then you can get paid for it. Monetizing your passion too early can make it feel like work. Before you even think about earning from this, enjoy it, try everything, and allow yourself to discover and rediscover your passion every day. As I said, I was already struggling with consistency. This meant that I had not delved into it long enough to want to do it on repeat. I knew this was what I wanted to do; I just did not know how much.

Some time back, we were working on our personal projects. This is a student-driven project that allows one to explore their interests and passions. I can argue that at that time, I had probably not discovered my love for writing. Some of my yearmates wrote either books or poems, and I will not lie, this made me feel like I was left behind. I used to write pieces, but I was afraid they were not good enough. After we presented the personal project, I saw how great some of their work was. The thing is, their work was not at a level I could not reach. In fact, I thought I could do better than some of them. I therefore decided to start writing books. You will probably believe me if I tell you I never finished any of the works I started. It is not that I did not want to; I just had the wrong motivation. I was not only competing with others but also with finished work. In fact, I feel this is what most people are doing. We have been exposed to so many excellent finished products that it gets overwhelming when we compare our progress with products from specialists or those who came before us in our various fields. Please stop! You do not need to catch up with anyone when it comes to passion. If you feel that way, then you are doing it to prove yourself rather than to improve yourself. That is a quick life hack to ensure a very miserable stay on earth.

Another thing I should probably mention is that practice makes perfect. Who does not want to be perfect? But hear me out. Passion is probably one of the few things that only you can take from yourself. What does that mean for you? As you might be aware, I also write poetry. You have probably heard that if you write a lot of poems, you will end up with a pile of good poems and a pile of bad ones. It is a great approach, but it does not work for me. This is the beauty in it, you get to choose what works for you. I need to draw inspiration, and that is when I come up with actual good work. This does not mean I am inconsistent; it just means I know when I am most productive.

What I find more useful than practicing a lot is clearing my mind a lot. If I can focus on something, I can achieve more than if I do the same thing over and over. What this does is it builds frustrations. While it is a beautiful thing, sometimes frustration can lead to either dropping the whole exploration or feeling incompetent every time you come up with something. If your skill needs a lot of practice, ensure you keep that up, but the point is to enjoy the practice and not take every move like a final test of greatness. Eventually, you will have enough skills to know that you are just having a bad day, but in the incubation stages, you will probably think you are not good enough. I guess what I am saying is that it is not about the quantity of practice; it is about the quality. You will not be good instantly; no need to panic.

Another thing is that you should know when to stop. That sounds great on paper, but in all honesty, it is not all that easy. There will be days you feel like you have not been productive or like so much is going on, you barely have time to do the things that you love. There will be days you feel unstoppable. The thing is, do not immortalize moments. This probably makes sense with bad things, but you do not want to immortalize the good moments either. I ‘am’ will always be greater than I ‘was’. Celebrate your compounding wins, but do not let them define you. Complacency is very much a road to underachieving. Take notes, learn the lessons, but keep moving. As I have been hinting at throughout, you will need time to get to where you want to be. If your goal is to cover the distance fast, you will miss the journey. If you ever get to the destination this way, you will be a shell of what you could have been. Set realistic goals, and even when you feel you can do more today, just let yourself rest to avoid burnout.

I am no expert when it comes to passions, but I know for a fact you are going to make mistakes. However, unless you are coming up with an invention, which I should probably congratulate you on, what you are doing has most likely already been done. If you decide to start from the beginning and make your own mistakes, you will probably be as great as everyone else. But if you want to surpass that and go beyond, you need to make new mistakes and avoid repeating those that already exist.