Top 4 Takeaways from Writing Weekly for a Year
I officially wrote and posted once a week for all of 2024. That’s 52 articles! Even more, I’m proud to be presenting article number 53.
Last winter, I was working with a coach while trying to figure out what was next for me. I was impatient and not dealing well with my circumstances in uncertainty. I told her that I felt like I needed to start writing. She asked me why I wanted to. She wasn’t sure what good it would do for me in my search for building out whatever was coming next in my career. I told her I wasn’t sure why. I just knew that I needed to.
I’m glad I trusted my gut as writing weekly has been one of the accomplishments of 2024 that I’m most proud of. Through writing, I found reasons for writing and now I’m excited to share my top 4 reasons with you:
Reason 1: A Process to Synthesize and Crystalize
For the last year and a half, I have learned so much that I often felt anxious that I was going to lose those learnings. The fact of the matter is, if we look at the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, the likelihood of retaining more than 20% of information drops a lot. Here’s the first place writing is helping me out. One, I am able to synthesize my learnings with life experiences and stories while I relate the concepts to my real-world. It is also helping me crystallize that information by requiring my body to actively put the words down. Even then, when I was struggling a few weeks ago, I reviewed my past posts, and the words of healthy Erika helped buoy up the struggling Erika. Writing has helped me relate, retain, and review many of my learnings from the last year.
Reason 2: A Growth chart
Like many folks, my mom marked my height as a child on the back of a closet door as I grew. She did this so we could have a visual representation of our growth. Because growth happens slowly, it is hard to see it happening – and yet, one day, you seem taller! Did it happen in one day? Of course not. So,tracking those changes can help you realize just how much you’ve grown. Writing has become a growth chart for me as well. The more open and vulnerable I am with where I’m at, the more I can see how far I’ve come when I have a new insight or breakthrough.
Reason 3: A Way to Contribute
Although this blog was something I started to help myself process many different things, I have found that it is also a way to think outside of myself and to try and help others. There have been a few folks that have reached out to thank me for something I’ve shared. I’m grateful that I have been able to learn and grow, but even more so, I’m hoping that my experiences can be consecrated in such a way as to be helpful to others. Writing grants me an opportunity to share my stories and learnings in way that can reach a wider audience.
Reason 4: A Process to Become a Better Listener
One of the joys of having ADHD is that when a thought pops into my head that I’m excited about, I want to share it – and often I want to share it immediately because forgetting that thought is a very possible reality for me. However, because of this, I can unintentionally hijack conversations. As I’ve been learning about listening and coaching skills, I have been better at learning how to hold off my own thoughts and stories as I make sure to save space for the person I’m working with. Since I don’t want to lose those stories or ideas, I find myself making note of them and allowing myself to hold space for those thoughts to be a possible article later. I’m finding that having a writing space to process through the thoughts in my head keeps me open to holding space for others when we are in real-time conversations.
I’ll admit, I originally got started writing for utility as well. It seemed that after I started writing, I saw posts and notes from others about how writing/posting regularly builds your SEO. On the days that it was hard to find time to write, I used SEO building as a motivator for my consistency. I used that driver again if the quality of my writing wasn’t as high as I wanted. Writing became a practice in consistently doing a hard, but worthwhile behavior. However, the overall discoveries I made were much more than I imagined and I’m glad I stayed open to discovering as I went.
One of my favorite discoveries has been the uncovering of a brand. I’m more certain of who I am and what I want to share with others. From here on, this blog will be the Roots & Wings newsletter. It will be dedicated to finding groundedness while learning to fly. I’ve been grateful I began this writing practice and look forward to continuing it through 2025.
Thank you for being here. I look forward to learning with you.