The upcoming holiday season brings gratitude, joy and an opportunity to celebrate life with those you love. It is the time of year to express our thankfulness for family, friends, opportunities, progress, and yes, writing. As a blogger, writer, or author, you love to write! So, you should always be thankful for writing, right?
Many business and entrepreneurial articles correlate thankfulness with success, often portraying thankfulness as a “secret ingredient” in goal progression.
Daily routine: Get up. Get dressed. Be thankful.
Simply expressing thankfulness as a tool for success minimizes what it means to truly be thankful. Being thankful is not solely an item on your to-do list or a pathway to success, but it can be a means of refocusing our thoughts and a powerful motivator. On days when you are tempted to stop writing, think you have nothing left to contribute, or your “why” for writing is no longer worth the work, perhaps you can simply be thankful.
Thankful for the burden of writing, the often-tormenting process of drafting and editing, and sorting information you believe valuable for your tribe. If you find yourself struggling to be grateful for the grind, consider these reasons to be thankful for writing:
[bctt tweet=”Daily routine: Get up. Get dressed. Be thankful. #thankfulness #writing” username=”loishoffmande”]
Be thankful you create.
Instead of copying, you create! Instead of complaining about outcomes, you become part of the solution. We live in a world today filled with more words and information then humanly possible to digest in a lifetime (or two!). Books, magazines, newspapers, and Google in our back pocket make creativity difficult. Knowing much content already exists, it becomes easy to believe all has been said and done before.
In her podcast for creatives and writers, “Writing Tips: If You Feel Like It’s All Been Said Before,” Maria Forleo describes this situation perfectly. “Often, it takes that one person to express it [a thought] in their voices for it to actually get through, and you are that person for somebody!”
Be thankful you contribute.
How wonderful to write, if only for our own benefit. Instead of consuming, you contribute. When you write, you profit from the effort. Thus, how much greater to know our writing also has the potential to enrich the lives of others.
“Thoughts disentangle themselves passing over lips and pencil tips.” Writing is a means of making sense of a world that appears senseless. Your writing is an opportunity to reach someone you may never meet, in a place you may never visit. Every day is filled with experiences that influence our lives. In a socially distant society, what a privilege it is to share those experiences with others.
Be thankful you learn.
An interview between successful entrepreneur and bestselling author, Michael Hyatt and the co-creator of the 5-Minute Journal and Productivity Planner, UJ Ramdas detailed many staggering considerations about writing. “Blogging is a means to process things in public,” stated Michael Hyatt, “I don’t know what I think about until I’ve written.”
“You can’t improve yourself in real time. When you write and correct, you are essentially correcting the syntax in your brain. Your thinking becomes more efficient,” added UJ Ramdas. Consider someone who made a positive impact in your life. Any great influencer was first a great thinker. Writing leads you to sort thoughts and train your mind to delve into a deeper level of thinking.
You learn through the writing process, contributing to the world through a perspective only you possess. So be thankful for writing! The often-daunting writing process yields outcomes worth celebrating this holiday season.
Why are you thankful for writing? Comment below! We love to hear from our reader-writers!
Beautiful thoughts. Although I have to admit, I often get dressed last. Love my bathrobe! Your site is a nice resource.
Thanks, Leah. Yes. Getting dressed for the day is sometimes overrated.
So true…being thankful is not something to check off of our to-do list, it’s a way of life. An attitude of gratitude and contentment in life is worth far more that a huge bank account. It’s the key to peace of mind and true happiness.
I am a fellow writer and had to laugh at the getting dressed comments above. There are many days that I am still in my bathrobe and the day is over……….my desk has switched from my morning coffee cup to my martini glass! Writing is a beautiful way to express love, joy, sadness, and to educate and empower. It is definitely something to be thankful about!
Ellen,
Maybe we need to start the Bathrobe Writer’s Club!
Lois,
As usual, I’m late to the party but thankful I have inspirational friends. Working on a new post, but for me, a blank screen has always been the toughest part of writing. Nevertheless, once the floodgates of creativity open, I cannot be stopped. Once the idea takes hold, I am consumed and focused on giving the concept life. As a culture, we are programmed to be thankful for the gifts others give us, and rightly so, but we tend not to be thankful for the gifts we can give to others. Just because we often can’t see the effects of our offering, does not mean they were nonexistent. As writers, words are one of our most powerful gifts.
Beautiful thoughts, Renee. Keep writing. People are watching even when they don’t speak up. You DO have a lot to give!