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5 Surprising Reasons You Should Write Every Day if You Want to Succeed

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Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald made writing look like a playboy’s game. Given to hard drinking and high living, they were famously careless and spendthrift. Fitzgerald squandered his fortune on the French Riviera, and Hemingway burned through the royalties from his Nobel-prize winning books paying for African safaris and fishing trips. By the end of his life, Hemingway had even acquired a large number of cats.

In many ways their fame has given their work a bad name. Their lives suggest that great writers and geniuses are spontaneous, impulsive and erratic—traits nearly the opposite of those sought in business leaders. Competent executives must be able to strategize and prioritize, understand markets and opportunities, adhere to budgets and acknowledge constraints.

First-class leaders are also known for their charisma, their ability to make solid decisions with incomplete information, and for their capacity to think on their feet. But developing a daily writing habit will sharpen your thinking and enhance your public speaking skills. It’ll make you more persuasive and more self-confident. You’ll find it easier to win arguments, motivate others, and drive results.

It’s a simple process: set aside 20 minutes every day for putting your thoughts into words. In time, you will watch yourself soar towards success in business as well as in life.

Here’s how writing each day can boost your leadership ability:

1. Writing builds your vocabulary

Writing helps build your vocabulary, making you more articulate in person as well as on paper.

Every time you write, you’ll be stretching yourself mentally as you reach for the right words. You might turn to Google or an old-fashioned thesaurus, or you might dig through your memories of reading and speaking, but each time you practice, you’ll be increasing the number and complexity of the words you know. You’ll also rev up your recall speed.

Not only will this make you a faster writer, but you’ll also become a smoother talker, and smooth talkers are persuasive leaders. Have an innovative insight you’d like to share? Want to take your elevator pitch to the next level? If you can find the best words, you’ll have taken the biggest step in convincing others that your ideas have value.

2. Writing hones your thinking

How often do you think about thinking? This process, called metacognition, helps you understand how your mind works as you form judgments, make decisions or conduct analyses. As you write, you’re practicing this special type of mental movement between impulse and action, between abstract thought patterns and the concrete form of words.

Every sentence has a logic, and so does every paragraph. When you write, you’re taking what inspires and excites you and crystallizing it into a logical format. As you re-read and revise what you’ve written, asking yourself if it’s clear and makes sense, you’ll be strengthening your logic even further.

Logic is your most powerful weapon in any argument, and your strongest ally in the battle to get your ideas heard.

“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” – E. L. Doctorow

3. Writing boosts creativity

People often assume that highly creative people are born that way, and that their great ideas grow organically within them like apples on a tree. Nothing could be further from the truth. Edison couldn’t have perfected the incandescent light bulb if he hadn’t spent years tinkering in a lab, and Bell wouldn’t have patented the telephone if he hadn’t first experimented extensively with the telegraph.

Great ideas don’t come from nowhere, they’re the fruits of habit, the gems that come at the end of a solid idea-development process. Writing is quite simply the finest idea-development process known to humankind. Revision and review allow the very best of your ideas to shine through.

4. Writing increases your self-confidence and charisma

When you know what you’re talking about, other people can sense it. True self-confidence radiates from within, and it’s infectious. Leaders who believe in their own abilities and knowledge are the ones everyone will want to follow. And nothing develops that knowledge and self-confidence as well as practice. Rehearse your thinking by writing it down, and you’ll naturally become more sure of yourself.  

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin

5. Writing is a way to practice mindfulness

Today’s leaders are aware of the advantages to cultivating mindfulness on a daily basis—from decreasing stress to increasing listening skills and interpersonal effectiveness. We know that building these skills will help us grow. However, it remains difficult for many of us to fit daily meditation into our busy schedules.

Daily writing offers similar benefits. It allows you to slow down and take stock of your thoughts and feelings, to gain clarity about your impulses. It provides a comprehensive catalog of your state of mind—one that you can draw upon to orient yourself as well as to convince others.

Building a writing habit offers you one other big advantage: in time, you’ll end up with a big pile of words.

Words that you can turn into blog posts or articles, words that you can package and sell as a book. Releasing these words out into the world can transform you into a thought leader, or perhaps even a celebrated (and well-paid) author. Your words might even make you as famous as Dale Carnegie or dare I mention Fitzgerald and Hemingway.

Have you tried expressing yourself in writing? If so, is it simple or challenging for you? Let us know in the comments below!

Image courtesy of Twenty20.com

Dawn Blizard, PhD, was trained as an English professor and seasoned as a technical editor before becoming a freelance copywriter and content creator. She helps research-driven B2B companies educate their target audiences in the digital space with standout white papers, blog and feature articles, website copy and more. As a ghostwriter, she’s passionate about helping her clients transform themselves into thought leaders and known experts.

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Success Advice

How Your Beliefs Can Supercharge or Sabotage Your Success

Your life is dictated by beliefs and biases that drive your thinking, behaviors, and decisions

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Your Beliefs Can Supercharge or Sabotage Your Success (1)
Image Credit: Midjourney

Pause for a moment and ponder two pandemic-era beliefs: First, closing schools will control the spread of a serious virus. Second, the consequences of such school closures—particularly social interruption and the prevention of immunity—are worse than becoming sick with the virus. (more…)

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How to Break the Cycles of Mediocrity and Manifest Your Greatness

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity

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Image Credit: Midjourney

In just a few weeks, we will be wrapping up 2023. Can you believe it? This year has been absolutely incredible for me.

I have seen amazing doors opened, new relationships formed and I am seeing dreams realized in my life. While this seems like the hallmarks of a great year, this has also been the most challenging year of my life. With all of the change happening in my life, I have been forced out of my comfort zone and challenged to grow in every area of my life.

I can truly say that I have made the most of my moments this year and I have used everything as a catalyst for maximizing my greatest potential.

As a revolutionary leader, I have the pleasure of consulting and advising leaders around the world to fulfill purpose, realize their greatest potential and make an impact.

I want to share some insights with you that will help you to break cycles of mediocrity and manifest your greatness

Everything legal must come through the matrix

I am sure that some of you are wondering why I am using the term matrix. However, what you have to understand is that I am trying to make a highly complex spiritual principle practical to understand.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, every life has an origin and I believe that origin is divine and begins with eternity. You are birthed from eternity and into time to fulfill a unique purpose and assignment in your lifetime and generation.

The matrix is simply the portal or vehicle that brings something out of the invisible realm and into tangible form. The problem with much of the teaching today is that it excludes the matrix. We are told to believe that success is instantaneous and overnight.

Nobody talks about how a dream progresses through stages beginning with visualization and ultimately culminating in manifestation. Without a matrix or portal then everything that you attempt to birth and build will be illegal.

The matrix not only makes you legal but it gives you the authority and power to function as the greatest expression of who you were created to be. 

Every matrix has an incubation process

While many people admire and respect me today, I remember a time when nobody knew who I was or the significance of my message. How did I get to where I am today? I got here through an incubation process.

In other words, everything that has been destined for your life is incubating and awaiting a set time of manifestation. The problem is that most people live their entire lives idle and never initiate the incubation process.

What do I meany by that? Most people are living reckless and very few people are living intentionally. I am amazed at the number of people I have conversations with that have no vision, goals or strategies for their lives. They show great promise and they have undeniable potential.

However, without development they will die with their dreams still in them.

Everything that has been destined for your life must be incubated and converted to become realities born to time. 

“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.” – Robert Collier

You must give expression to that which is not yet born to time

When you think about a matrix or a prophetic incubation process, you have to understand that potential is often unrealized and untapped. In other words, your potential is in raw form and your potential cannot serve you as long as it is untapped.

The thing that makes me valuable is that I have the ability to convert potential into power. I have done it in my own life and I have empowered leaders around the world to do the same. How do you convert potential into power?

First, it is important to note that you have to perceive potential. If you cannot perceive your potential then you can never cultivate your potential. In addition, you must take the time to cultivate your potential. We often get excited about our capabilities; however, we never expand our capacity in order to realize our greatest potential.

In other words, the strength of your potential is only discovered through your willingness to stretch. The more we are challenged the more we are empowered to expand our capacity for greatness. Most of all, you must begin to express your potential. The expression of potential is different for every person.

For example, the expression of my potential is best demonstrated through the thoughts, ideas, products, services, books, etc.

For another person the expression of potential may look like a screenplay, artwork, sports, scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, etc.

Regardless of the form of expression, I know that you will live empty and unfulfilled until you make the decision to express your potential. The expression of your potential gives voice to your dreams, life to your vision, significance to your moments and activates your true power.

You must manifest your greatness

As a revolutionary thinker and leader, my work has impacted people around the world. I am grateful that my life is a source of empowerment to so many people. However, before anyone could ever benefit from my life, I had to make a non-negotiable decision to become who I was born to be.

I wish I could tell you that this journey is easy and that you will get there overnight. However, in a world that celebrates us for doing we are often criticized for being. As a result, I wasted a lot of time trying to be who other people wanted me to be instead of being who I was born to be.

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity. It is through our bravery to be vulnerable that we ultimately manifest our greatness. We do not bless the world by being a duplicate. We bless the world when we honor our difference. When you honor your difference you honor your potential.

Ultimately, your difference is how you manifest your greatness.

When you present anything but your authentic self to the world, you are playing small and you are robbing the world of your significance. Manifesting your greatness requires you to master your gifts.

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Success Advice

Here’s a Young Man’s Antidote for the Uncertainty of the Modern World

Why do a lot of young guys lack confidence in today’s world? 

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How to boost your confidence
Image Credit: Midjourney

We all have been told that confidence is a key factor in achieving success and happiness in life. But what is it exactly? (more…)

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Success Advice

Toxic Leadership: 5 Ways to Identify a Bad Leader

if you have a leader who displays any of the toxic traits, it’s time to move on to greener pastures.

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Toxic leadership
Image Credit: Midjourney

Let’s be honest, we’ve all crossed paths with a toxic leader in our careers at some point. Unfortunately, while some toxic leaders don’t even bother to hide their behaviour, some know very well how to conceal their true selves behind a strong-built facade. The latter is the most dangerous of the two. (more…)

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