Why Writing Can Change You and the World You Live In

During our school days, writing was such a loathsome task; one of the greatest parts of graduation was putting down our pens and letting our brains atrophy. Why, then, do so many people choose to write? Why bother writing anything if there isn’t a formidable educator standing over us?

1. Change

Change is the reason so many people choose to write. It is what drives me – and perhaps many of you. After all, Margaret Mead was right when she said: “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.” And writing about both the good and bad experiences has been the foundation of change. Not convinced? Let me tell you exactly how writing can instigate change – both on a personal and global level.

Writing can be used as a tool to bring about change in the world by raising awareness about injustices and faults in the current system. It can help individuals to express their opinions and perspectives, leading to positive changes in society. Moreover, writing can help you to identify your own emotions and thought processes, leading to personal growth and self-improvement.

2. Measure Success

I once read an article on goal setting. The author instructed readers to write down all their goals and aspirations. Then, go back and determine how they will accomplish each task.

Why write your goals down? You are much more likely to accomplish your goals if you put the effort into writing them. You focus your mind on what you really want to accomplish and how you are going to do it. An ambiguous goal – like eating healthier – is difficult to measure, but if you wrote it out, you’d probably think of several ways to narrow your goal down and elaborate on what you really want to achieve, such as sitting down to dinner every night, eating three servings of fruits and vegetables each day, or only hitting the fast food joint once a week.

Similarly, writing about your travel experience offers a way to measure your successes and evaluate if you are achieving everything you set out to do.

3. Instigate Change

Each and every day, we all – no matter where we are in the world – witness injustices, faulty rules and regulations, prejudices, and more. Many of us feel there is little, if anything we can do about these things. However, there has always been one tried and true way to instigate change: raise awareness.

Writing about offensive things is the first step to drawing attention to them; once you have drawn attention to the situation, you can go about instigating change. People generally sit in their culturally-ignorant bubble (no judgment there, just a fact) and are totally unaware of many issues others face on a daily basis. Since few people have the means or desire to witness these things firsthand, it is the responsibility of global writers to bring these injustices to the attention of fellow countrymen.

By writing about major world issues, the author is changing their own life along with changing the world. If we just passively observe life – without engaging – we don’t really experience it. Write about it, and it becomes a personal issue that changes how you think, live, and interact with others. According to Wikipedia, desensitization is defined as the diminished emotional responsiveness to a negative or aversive stimulus after repeated exposure to it. Writing about these issues, rather than turning a blind eye, can lead to action and, ultimately, social change.

4. Learn Something New

Writing teaches us something new every day. It encourages us to research and gather information, making us more informed and knowledgeable about the world around us. Whether you’re a professional writer, a news reporter, or a novelist, research is always an integral part of the writing process.

But writing also provides less obvious learning opportunities. Take this blog post, for example. Before putting my thoughts down on paper, I checked the archives of the site because I wanted to make sure no one else had written anything like it before. While meandering through the past posts, I couldn’t help but click on several that caught my eye. Two hours later, I had determined there wasn’t anything like my article on this blog – but there was a ton of interesting and educational information.

At the very least, writing teaches you something about yourself. Just a simple diary entry exposes your deepest thoughts and intentions. If you didn’t take the time to write it, you might not have ever unearthed those parts of yourself.

Conclusion

Writing may have been a loathsome task during our school days, but it is a powerful tool that can change our lives and the world we live in. It can help us to set and achieve goals, educate ourselves, instigate change, and learn more about ourselves and the world around us. Whether we’re writing for personal expression or social change, it is important to remember that writing can truly make a difference. So, the next time you pick up a pen or sit down at your keyboard, remember the power that lies within your words. Use them to make a positive impact on the world.