Why People Who Care Don’t Write

I’m 24 years old, and for the last five years I’ve spent two hours almost every Wednesday serving in the kids ministry at my church. I start with a group of first grade boys, and now I’m waving as the last one leaves the Switch room with his parents.

A melancholy excitement comes over me. I get my Wednesday evenings back, but chances are I won’t see these fifth graders ever again. I’m graduating and moving away, and they’ll grow up here in Stillwater.

These thoughts accompany me as I make my way through a mostly empty lobby, and just before I reach for the exit doors, I hear my name called from behind.

“Jason, hold up,” Cody, the lead pastor of our church, says as he jogs over to dap me up. A fairly typical goodbye conversation follows, and as I turn to leave, he says, “Jason, you’re a leader. People look up to you, and I think you need to start putting your thoughts out into the world. You need to start writing.”

I shake my head and laugh, but he doubles down. “I’m serious, man. People’s lives could be changed by what you have to say. Don’t underestimate the power of your words, brother.”

With those words hanging in the air, he’s pulled away into another conversation.

Those words hung in the air for over five years before I finally let them sink in and started writing this newsletter. I could say I didn’t have the time, or that people didn’t want to read what I had to say, but the only reflection that feels honest is that I lacked effort and had an abundance of ego.

If we want to maximize our impact in this world and do the most good we can with the time we’ve been given, we should be writing. Before we talk about the benefits of writing publicly, we first need to address the reasons most people don’t.

It’s not because they’re bad writers. We have countless tools to technologically improve our writing.

It’s not because they don’t have time. Tim Ferriss says, “A lack of time is actually a lack of priorities.”

If you want to make a difference in this world but haven’t started writing yet, the reason most likely falls into one of two categories.

Emotional Risk

Writing for others to see is a definite risk.

We commit ourselves to ideas we might fail to uphold.

We invite judgment from people we do and don’t know.

We publish thoughts that can never be perfect.

Failure, judgment, and perfectionism can easily overwhelm any desire we had to write in the first place.

When we write, we emotionally expose ourselves to our readers, and that can be a scary thing.

We overcome this only when we value the impact our writing could have more than the fear it creates.

Instead of asking, “What if they don’t like what I write?” we ask, “What if this helps someone in a small way?”

We turn fear into an act of service.

Mental Misalignment

When we write for others to read, we often view it as a performance, something that requires originality and immense talent. We sometimes see it as an extra task, something unnecessary. We also tend to overestimate the time and effort it takes to write.

These miscalculations persuade us that whatever we wanted to say isn’t worth sharing.

Instead, we should recognize the power our words carry and the opportunity lost when we choose not to use them.

By changing our mindset around writing, we amplify our impact. Mental misalignment dissolves when we see writing as a tool for clarity, a form of service, and a multiplier of action.

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For five years, I let my fear of judgment and my perfectionist mindset keep me from amplifying the impact I could have had on people’s lives. I was so afraid of how many people might judge me that I failed to consider how many people might actually enjoy what I had to say.

If we’re serious about improving our leadership, living on purpose, and serving others well, then we should be writing.

Fact

Putting ideas into words dramatically increases the likelihood that we’ll act on them.

Action

Write one paragraph today that answers a question someone younger than you might be asking.

Question

Who might benefit if you finally put your words out there?

Quote

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic.”

- J.K. Rowling