Writing for mental peace.

Anything that you do with love is meditation.

I have built my career through writing. A lot of people ask how I manage to write so much, including emails, blog posts, video scripts, and books.

First of all, let me clarify that I do not do "hard work" to write. I write like I write an email to a friend. But this did not happen overnight. It takes years of practice and you will enjoy doing it once you get good at it.

Just like learning guitar, it takes time to enjoy it. In the initial days of learning, you will feel like playing guitar is work. However, if you have practiced well, then you can enjoy playing guitar, and get even better at playing it through practice. You just need to stay focused until you get to the “escape velocity”. Most people will never go beyond that level and feel like doing “hard work” and give up too soon.

People are chatting on WhatsApp all day. Writing is not difficult. Speaking your thoughts is not difficult. I write because it gives me peace. When I write, I do not think about the past or the future. I am in the present moment and I can't think about anything else even if I try to.

We do not need peace of mind. We need peace “from” mind. The mind is always chewing on something unless you give the mind something to chew on. When I write, I put my mind to chew on something, like tapping into my memory, experience, and neuro-muscular system.

If I don't put my mind to work, my mind will chew on something from the past or imagine something about the future. But progress doesn't come from thinking about the future. The seed of the future is in the present moment. If you don't focus on the moment and get work done, the future will just remain an imagination.

Work is meditation

Deep work is done in the present moment. And the moment is a reward in itself. If you can do any work that keeps your mind in the present, then you will be happy with your work. Even cleaning the house can give immense pleasure because you are putting the mind to work (and the mind is not putting you to work).

It is always you vs. your mind. You can use the mind, or the mind can use you. When the mind uses you, it builds your ego and identity. And while you are doing that, you can't stay present and you can't get any work done.

For me it is writing, for some people, it can be writing code and building an app, for some, it is speaking, for some, it is working with people, and for some, it could be something physical such as art, architecture, and so on.

If you want to get better at writing, start writing for the sake of writing and not for someone to read. Only when you think that someone is going to read, do you become conscious of it and your writing suffers.

When you start, write so that you can get the words out of you. When you are experienced, write to get the words into someone else. If you write 1000 words per day, it will take you 3 years to cross 1 million words. You need to write at least a million words before you can call yourself experienced in writing.

In the initial days of my career, I did not write about digital marketing for my readers, I used my blog as a place to take notes and organize my thinking. Writing gives you clarity. It forces you to organize random thoughts in your brain into a structure. Because without a structure, you can't write.

Writing is thinking

When you start writing, most of the thoughts in your brain will be unstructured. The structures and the way you shape the narrative will become better as you get more experience. I don't write because I want to make business revenue. I make business revenue so that I get the time and freedom to write. Writing is not for the reward. Writing is the reward.

Unless you build such a relationship with writing, you cannot become a great writer. Open the document, it's just you and the blank screen. And in that space, you will see words come out of nowhere. It will be pure creativity. You become a creator when you create that space where creativity can take birth.

Core-to-core communication

When you write for years, you will start seeing that the words are not coming out of your mind and it is coming out of you. That's when you get better at communication. It is core communication. Only when the communication is coming from my core, it will reach your core - and not the surface personality that you have developed to face the world (your ego/identity).

Unless you speak to people's core, you will not capture their minds share and attention. If you have read this email until now, it is because I am talking directly to you. That's why I don't create much on social media. There is too much noise and the people who have low attention spans are the ones always scrolling the newsfeed there.

​I am targeting the people who read. The people who read are the ones who are going to be buyers (and high-quality ones at that). High-quality buyers have the patience to read. I need attention only from people like you, who read.

Reading is also another activity that gives you peace because you are in the present moment. If you have read this email until now without getting distracted by a WhatsApp message or a Chrome notification, good for you. Most people cannot. Make writing addictive for you. Make reading your content addictive for your readers. Your career is sorted.​​​​​​​​​​​​

There is a lot more to writing than what meets the eye.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.