Seeing Lady Liberty on her perch will always be special. ❤️🤍💙 (Photo by Fernando Strabuli on Unsplash)

Good words: 250 years of the USA

There’s a lot to side eye about the musical Hamilton, but one thing that’s always fascinated me about it is how it portrays Hamilton’s love for writing. He’s absolutely frenetic, obsessed, like it gives him life more than air to write and write and write.

He’s not necessarily a genius, or has any other God-given pre-requisites to be a “good” writer. There is nothing about him that is special, or disposed to writing.

He used writing to think, so he got a lot of practice.

And then he wrote things down to communicate them to others. Sharing got him feedback that helped him improve.

That has to be you now.

250 years later, we’re still writing things down to communicate, but to AI tools. They have no emotional intelligence or ability to read non-verbal cues, so we’ve actually got it harder than Hamilton in some ways.

What’s likely missing in your day to day is the writing to think, giving you that practice. You have to start building that muscle. It will help make the reading/writing reality of your job hurt less over time.

⭐️ Key action: 5-minute reflection at the end of each week

▶️ How to do it: Open a blank doc (or better, a paper journal and use a pen) and start free writing as a way to close out your week. If you don’t know what to say, start with literally, “I’m writing and I don’t know what to say blah blah this sucks blah blah…” It will give way to actual writing.

💭 Think about it: Did any kind of insight or a-ha moment emerge as you wrote? If so, what was it?