I write to figure out what I really think about something.
It’s the deep dive, it’s the analysis, it’s the fleshing out. If you really want to know what’s going on, write about it.
I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say. — Flannery O’Connor
I haven’t written it out completely yet, but I have a post in draft called, “Everything I learned about sales I learned at the Flea Market.” But one reason I learned so much about sales is that my two young boys were with us that day (we were selling stuff). We talked about why some things were selling and others weren’t. Who was buying and who wasn’t. But it took explaining it from me to them to really learn.
Writing something out is even stronger. When you write, you use a different part of your brain, your fingers go at a different speed than your thoughts so you have to play a bit of catch up–and slow down. You have to find that speed where your thoughts let it roll into your fingers so it comes out right.
The beauty, the magic is when your mind communicates directly with your fingers and you just read what you’re writing–in real time–and you’re practically an observer. It doesn’t happen often, but guess how often it happens when you’re not writing? Exactly.