Why I Write — The Truth (It’s for YOU)

That is a fun title isn’t it.

This is the truth as to why I write and therein the reason I write the truth…ha!

Listen to the podcast here:

I am a proud person. I will be the first to admit that I have an ego and an issue with other’s perception of me — as a good political science student, I learned to account for all views in the room (it’s much more than that of course).

In spite of my pride, every time I receive attention and praise for my writing I am utterly humbled.

I am humbled because I am doing this for the sake of all of the me’s that are still wandering around thinking the world exists only as they currently perceive it to exist.

I am humbled because there is not a single word I write outside my purpose of sharing the reality with everyone I possibly can:

Your life is your own and there are real, close-at-hand actions you can take to change it (especially as a student)

I am not perfect.

I don’t have it all figured out.

I still have the days where I don’t even want to get out of bed.

I still fail in the face of difficulty and challenge.

And maybe that is one of the most powerful lessons to learn of them all, I don’t run away from it, I embrace it and live spectacularly alongside it.

I write because I jumped off a cliff and found that falling was actually flying and flying is worlds better than standing at the cliff’s edge acting like there’s no cliff.

I write to illustrate the imperfect example of all of the marvelous things each one of you is capable of.

I write for you.

I am not an abnormally special person.

I just do abnormal stuff.

Here is a list of abnormal things I’ve done to create an abnormal life of awesomeness out of a normal life of normalness:

1. Induced deep depression by jumping off the cliff (burned the ships).
2. Invested long hours in seemingly fruitless reading (long-term investments in myself).
3. Made a fool of myself reaching out to hundreds of innocent professionals (being prolific as opposed to perfect).
4. Pestered and badgered people to pay attention to me and give me hope (pursued relationships instead of connections).
5. Wrote about all of it and forced it upon unsuspecting audiences (swallowed my pride and did something that made my uncomfortable).

This is not a trending HuffPost article on the 7 Tricks To Change Your Life Forever.

This is an honest account of someone who struggles, someone who fails really, really hard guys, someone who screws up opportunities more often than he nails them, someone who needs to bang his head against the brick wall to find out that it actually IS made of bricks after all (who’da thunk).

You know whats so phenomenal about my many faults?

Each way in which I fail illustrates yet another way that you can achieve the same things I do (and with less pain, I’m sure).

I am not here to tell you all the ways I am better than you.

I am here to share all of the ways that even someone like me has found success.

There are countless, truly endless, tips, tricks, pieces of advice and beautiful, encouraging mantras I can pass on to you right now. But let me find you exactly where you are. Accept this truth and begin to grow.

No matter where you stand today, there is always a path forward.

It is now only a matter of taking one step.

Let’s worry about the second step when we come to it.