(Principles are basic truths that, when applied, cause success to come to you easier and quicker.)
There are many ways to learn. This S3MC is about learning through the process of writing.
In first high school, then college I was at best an awkward writer, uncomfortable creating sentences, paragraphs, whole papers. Struggling to write was an unexamined problem; I knew I didn’t like to write but didn’t know why.
Then a boss/mentor showed me the easy path to becoming comfortable writing by telling me to stop trying to write well! As he said, and confirmed from many sources, good writing happens in the re-writing/editing, rarely if ever in the initial writing.
Whew! Did that ever take the pressure off. Just write whatever I think I want to say, when go back through and ‘perfect’ it in rewrites. (See S:1111)
Today’s additional power insight about writing is the learning which can occur simply from the process of writing. By not being bound by a need to ‘get it right’ from the start, by having the permission to do whatever rewrites it takes, you may find that you end up in a different place than where you were initially headed.
As you formulate your thoughts into words and sentences and whole pieces you gain access to ideas – creative and remembered – which change the arc of your experience. You learn by writing.
This from an anonymous source: “Writing was thinking, a way of bringing order to the world. By writing I worked out what I was actually doing, formulated my true opinion on things.”
Perfectly expressed!
Coaching Point: Can you take the gloves off, bang out some words, reread, modify … and learn something you didn’t know you knew?
Copyright 2023 Steve Straus. All rights reserved.
S:1419 Principle: Write To Learn
Published on: January 11, 2023