Why you’re not a writer (yet)

Let’s do a thought experiment.

Imagine a time in your near future. You’ve written a book. It has made a big impact on a lot of people. Everyone who reads it says, “Wow, now I understand.” You have many fans, and they love what you’ve taught them. They talk about it often. You see people using words and ideas you created all the time. You give speeches to hundreds of people, their heads nodding up and down as you share the thing you discovered.

How would that feel?

Does that feel like something you’d enjoy? Is that your idea of what it would be like to be a writer?

What’s stopping you?

What’s coming between you and that future?

Do you have an idea that powerful in your head? What are you doing to find it and refine it? Are you doing work that makes you smarter? Are you interacting with people and learning from them? Are you testing ideas in a blog, a podcast, on YouTube, on Instagram, on Twitter, or somewhere and seeing what resonates?

If not, start. You can’t have a powerful idea without working on it.

Are you collecting ideas somewhere? Is there a place where you keep track of what you are learning and the proof points behind it?

If not, make one. Google Drive is free.

Are you practicing writing? Do you put words to create prose, to talk about ideas every day? How can you possibly be a writer if you don’t write?

If not, start blogging or journaling. The more you write, the more you will learn what it takes to write.

Do you have time to write and research what you want to write? What part of the day is your time? How do you use it? Scrolling social media? Watching television? Drinking or getting high?

If you don’t have time, find something you can stop doing and write in that time instead. You may find that it’s more enjoyable than whatever you used to be doing.

Is your job such that you could never write what you actually believe and get away with it?

If so, start planning what it would take to get a job that won’t get in the way. It’s a great time to be looking.

Do you get constant messages from your life partner that you are not good enough? Dump them.

Start

Being a writer is not easy. It takes extended effort to be successful.

But I can guarantee, if you don’t start working on it, you will never get there.