Hi there! My name is Gregg. Welcome to my blog.
Doing some sort of online writing has been on my mind for a while now and with this first post, I’d like to explain the six reasons why I am starting (and hopefully continuing) this endeavor.
1. To Become More Articulate
The first reason is to help me think, process my thoughts, and become more articulate. Unfortunately, it took me until the age of 30 to realize that the importance of reading and writing IS to be able to critically think and to clearly articulate your thoughts so others can understand them.
By reading we can learn and absorb new knowledge and ideas, as well as expose ourselves to masters of language. Then through writing, we force ourselves to critically think and then articulate our thoughts into something narrative and coherent. Consequently, we will become better and more effective communicators.
Now perhaps you might’ve innately known this about reading and writing, but I didn’t (and this is not to the fault of any of my English teachers). No one had ever explained to me in an upfront, blunt way why English class was important (as far as I can remember)…it was just a subject we had to take and its importance to me was to learn vocabulary, grammar, and exposure to “the English language.” Easy to say in hindsight now, but if I had known this earlier I probably would’ve taken my English classes much more seriously. This is a realization I learned from clinical psychologist, professor emeritus, and best-selling author, Dr. Jordan Peterson. You can check out this 15-minute video of him in which he makes this case.
My hope is to one day be someone people will listen to. I want to be as great a communicator as guys like Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, Douglas Murray, and Vivek Ramaswamy, all of whom have made a big impact on other people’s lives and carry a lot of influence in the world today. I believe this endeavor will help me work toward that. If you don’t know who these guys are, you should check them out. Regardless of what you think of them and their beliefs, you can’t deny they are incredible communicators.
2. To Clear My Mind
Secondly, I feel it necessary to write to get thoughts out of my head.
I remember coming across this idea in Matthew McConaughey’s memoir Greenlights, in which he writes:
“I never wrote things down to remember; I always wrote things down to forget.”
-Matthew McConaughey
By writing, not only will I later be able to recall what I will inevitably forget, but as to what he is saying, I believe writing can help “create” space for more ideas and thoughts to appear.
If we think of our mind as a bucket and the generation of new thoughts and ideas like a faucet (with the thoughts and ideas themselves the water) that fills the bucket. Once the bucket is full, no fresh, new water can collect in the bucket, so it only makes sense to turn off the faucet until you empty some of the water. That is essentially what we are doing when we are writing – we are emptying our minds to create space for fresh and new ideas.
Now at this point, I have no idea what I’ll specifically be writing about. Honestly, I have no idea what thoughts will pour out of the faucet. Vaguely, I know I will write about life, realizations, and things I learn, find interesting, and wish to share. However, specifically…well stick around and find out! I promise you’ll get some value from something I write!
With that said, I will make the disclaimer now that you may not like nor agree with my thoughts and opinions or with the content I share…that’s fine. Even if we share differing perspectives I still love and respect you, and appreciate you for reading my posts.
3. To Be a Source of Learning
With that said, the third reason I am doing this is to share the information I’ve learned and discovered with the hope and goal that it may
- Spark your interest and in some way add value to your life, or
- Expose you to new and maybe different ideas and perspectives which get you to think and draw your own conclusions and beliefs about the world and society.
As a former public school teacher, I value education and admittedly, I consume a lot of information. Whether from books, online articles, news sources, videos, podcasts, videos, etc. I enjoy learning about new ideas, concepts, and perspectives that (if applied) have the potential to improve my current life.
Having consumed a lot of things I hope to be a messenger of positive influence and information amongst the endless swath of info we have today thanks to social media.
If there is one thing I’ve learned I believe is ever more important today is to to never naively trust information, to take everything with a grain of salt (even what I have to say!), and to think for yourself. Thus, this endeavor hopefully will help expose you to information and perspective to encourage, help, and allow you to do that.
Now on top of you potentially learning something from me, conversely, I am doing this to hopefully learn from You.
Consider this an invitation to make this an open and joint venue with you. If you have any critique, comments, or thoughts on anything I write or have any suggestions and recommendations on books, podcasts, articles, topics, videos, influencers, etc please send them my way. I’m always open to new insight, knowledge, and perspective. Also, if you have any critique and constructive feedback to help me improve I’d gladly welcome it.
4. To Put Myself Out There
The fourth reason I am deciding to do this is to be vulnerable, to risk and be uncomfortable, and to put myself out there for the world. Attention and time are our most precious currencies and we spend them either producing or consuming.
I no longer want to be just a consumer and so this blog is my foolish, amateur start at being a producer, a creator. It is a tool that I hope will help me get over my fears of judgment and what anyone else thinks of me, and help me summon up the courage to be vulnerable and to step out in faith.
Plus too, I think it would be interesting to see where this goes over a year or even years. It is an open journal and again, selfishly, think and hope it would be cool to look back on this in the future to see where and who I’ve been and the changes that happened both internally and externally.
5. It is a Biblical and Fundamental Principle of Life
Feel free to disagree with me, but I do believe the bible holds truths and wisdom to help us lead and live “good and successful lives.” And so the final reason I am doing this is because I believe creating is a biblical principle that is part of our fundamental existence and responsibility as humans.
My biblical defense for this belief comes from Genesis 1:1, in which the first action God does in the entire canon is creating the heavens and the earth. This is no coincidence and I believe highlights the significance of the act of creating within our lives. After this, God then goes on to create everything in existence for six days. On top of this, it is later said in Genesis that we humans were made in the image of God. Being made in the image of our creator I believe means we are meant to be creators in this world made by God.
Putting religion aside, this principle seems to make sense from a natural perspective in which one could argue the fundamental responsibility for the existence of life is procreation, as that is literally what all organisms (including us humans) fight to survive for. Also, financially speaking, wealth and success often go to those entrepreneurs and businesses that build and create – be it a product, service, or information/knowledge. I believe that taking the action and risk of producing something of value to others gives one the best chance at being successful in many different ways (financially, emotionally, etc) and helps find meaning in life.
Conclusion
In conclusion, those are my five reasons for starting this endeavor.
As of right now I have no set goals or schedule for how often I will be posting. I am just trying to write (or edit and rewrite) a little bit every day to reap that [potential] compound interest in my writing skills…so yeah, we’ll see how this goes.
Online writing is a new endeavor for me and as a beginner, I ask for your patience as I experiment, figure things out, and do my best to be consistent. Perfection is not my goal. Being consistent and improving is.
With that said, if you’ve made it this far and are still reading, welcome again, and thank you for taking the time to do so. I hope you will continue to join me along for the ride and discussion.
Until the next post, please take care and have a good day!