KAIZEN CH.75 - Write for yourself. Not for an audience
Thoughts on morning pages, sharing on the internet and Japanese words
Hey friend 👋,
Welcome to the 75th edition of the Kaizen Newsletter ⛩, a weekly newsletter where I share my thoughts, new ideas I learn and make weird connections between self-improvement, productivity, product, tech, sports, anime.
3 weeks ago, my friend Dickie started a ship 30 for 30 challenge, where every day, every participant has to write an atomic essay (~250 words) for 30 days straight.
This is definitely something I would've done had I not decided to join my YouTuber class a few days earlier that he announced the challenge.
So since I felt I was missing out, I decided to try my go at my own atomic essay, and would love to know if you prefer this format or do you prefer a longer format?
Reply to the email or leave a comment to let me know!
Now, on to the newsletter.
I was never a good writer in school, I didn't have any expertise to share with the world and there are already TONS of people that have amazing blog posts on the topics that I would want to write.
Writing online is daunting. But it doesn't need to be.
People who are afraid to start writing (including myself) often believe that you have to write for others. But what helped me is to reframe the way that I think about writing online.
Instead of trying to think of writing for a particular audience, you should just write for yourself.
Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, calls this selfish writing.
I write for myself. I'm never trying to think, "If David was reading this, what would he want to read?" I never, never think about that. I think that's when you do your best work. - Morgan Housel
If you're thinking of writing online, then you must be curious about certain topics.
So write down the questions that you're already thinking about and answer those questions.
Most of my writing originally comes from questions that I have about the world that surrounds me or about myself.
For example, last week's newsletter was started because I asked myself the question, "How can you mitigate the feeling of screaming into the void and get feedback on your writing before launching it off to the public?"
By doing this, you don't need to care if anybody actually reads your writing. At the very least you're able to answer your own questions and understand the world or your world a bit better.
Start writing online by writing for yourself.
🤔 Thoughts
📹 Thoughts on Morning Pages
In this week's YouTube video, I share my thoughts on why I write 750 words every morning and how it helps me unlock my creativity.
This is a re-hash of one of my previous newsletters and then I added some additional commentary on top of it.
🌐 Thoughts on Sharing on the Internet
Another day, another win for sharing your stuff on the internet.
This week, my friend Danny Miranda got THE GaryVee to go on his podcast, which is HUGE.
It all started with a normal post.
Which eventually led to GaryVee following him.
Which prompted a bunch of people commenting on this tweet which then led to this...
The craziest thing about this story is not just the fact that GaryVee decided to hop on the podcast, but the fact that Danny randomly decided to write down these notes... two weeks ago.
I'm telling you guys, reality manifestation is a THING 😤.
🏯 Thoughts on Japanese Words
If you didn't notice already, I have somewhat a fascination with Japanese culture in general, but especially with beautiful Japanese words that can't be directly translated in English.
For example, Kaizen, the name of my newsletter, translates to "continuous improvement”.
Around a month ago, my friend James showed me the Japanese word Kamiwaza, which is an even more beautiful word.
It translates to "Divine Work" or "God's Technique".
You achieve Kamizawa when you are in the top 0.01% of your domain. It's the destination in the pursuit of excellence.
Lebron James playing basketball is kamiwaza, Miles Davis playing the trumpet is kamiwaza, Thomas Keller cooking a dish is kamiwaza. - James Qiambo
We should all strive to find the thing in where we want to achieve kamizawa.
🐦 Tweets
You already have others that will try and sabotage you, so why not lift yourself up instead? A good reminder from Visa.
Love this writing quote.
Funniest skit I've found this week 😂.
🙏 Shoutout
Shoutout to my girlfriend Nancy who came back from Boston for the holidays, but is spending more time helping me out filiming my YT videos instead of relaxing during the weekend 😅.
👋 End Note
If you want to know what I'm up to now, you can check it on my website here.
If you enjoyed the Kaizen Newsletter, then it'd be cool if you can share it with your friends.
See ya next Tuesday,
Alexander ✌️
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