Letting the words fly where they may

Verba volant

Welcome, dear reader, to yet another selfish blog.

Why selfish, you ask? Well, although writers might pretend that their first and foremost goal of publishing their work online is to better the lives of others, they are certainly doing it for themselves. They are stretching their writing muscles in order to write better next time. This is my warm-up, stretch and will hopefully strengthen my typing fingers. Here are my seven selfish reasons to start this blog.

1. Structuring my thoughts into coherence

I am not going to hold up the pretence of trying to change the world one blog at a time. My goal is to structure my thoughts and to work the finger muscles one word at a time. To get myself into production mode even when I’m cranky, sick or exhausted.

2. Strengthening the writing and shipping muscles

I can’t possibly get better at writing by only reading other people’s work. During the altMBA, that finished a few weeks ago, my perfectionism got quite the kick under the butt. Sometimes my sentences will not flow, my paragraphs will not create the synergy that I hope for, the reader will not be inspired and would rather click away. In those moments, perhaps my loving parents, sister, and partners will push through and read the whole thing. Or not, which is also totally fine, mum. 

3. Seeing the progress (or the lack thereof)

Consistently showing up, and hopefully seeing my work get better over time, these are my goals. An added benefit is the creation of an archive for me to look back on and see how my thoughts have progressed over the years. It will help me reflect on the progress, or the lack thereof. It might show me where I’m headed and allow me to adjust course if necessary.

But why bother us with this, why not just write in a personal journal? 

Well, that is just not as much fun now, is it?

4. Changing my mind and furthering my thoughts through interaction

I am an extravert. I like people and interaction. I like excitement and newness. I also see that my friends don’t always want to be burdened with every new idea that pops into my head. 

So now we are here to help you unburden your friends?

Yes. By reading and interacting with my writing you are also helping me make new connections and in the best case, I might even change my mind. No worries, it is not as hard as it sounds. I’m usually easily convinced and I pride myself for being able to change my mind often. This might not seem like a featured character trait to you yet, but I will try to convince you in a future blog.

5. The perfect medium to test out other ideas

I am not saying this website will always stay a blog. I have many ideas, and if you decide to stay posted don’t be surprised if you eventually receive a video, podcast or drawing. It could happen at any given moment!

6. Easing the guilt of not executing all my ideas

At least I can say I wrote the idea down! If I meet someone who is perfectly suited to work on one of my ideas I can just send him/her/them the link and ask them to have at it – this use of ‘them’ as a singular pronoun will also be the focus of a future blog -.

How wonderful! I am freeing myself from the (self-imposed) guilt for not executing every brilliant (and not so brilliant) plan that I conceive.

7. Creating an audience for when the time is ripe

That moment will come, that I take on a new project, for which I might need support, comments, reflections and all the lovely things you could provide. 

There you will be. 

Thank you in advance for reading some of my ramblings and interacting if it speaks to you. 

The first draft of this blog was written while listening to the playlist Brainfood on Spotify. On the train from Utrecht to Nijmegen. On the first day of my period. It was finished during the first WriteNow! Meeting with nine wonderful people from all over the world. Many thanks to David for the comments and sharp eye!