A few years ago, I suffered from severe burnout.
Looking back, I think several events contributed to the feeling of being burnt out. One was a new job that I had taken on, and the second was a health scare that resulted in my having to undergo major surgery. It was the catalyst that made me rethink how I was living life.
The new job was challenging, coupled with my declining health; I struggled to cope with the multiple demands at work.
The fear of underperforming pushed me to work till early mornings and weekends to keep up with my deadlines, and I began suffering from burnout, stress and anxiety. I worked hard but didn't feel like I had succeeded in achieving anything in the end. As a result, I lost confidence in my ability to perform effectively at work, felt stuck and lost my sense of purpose, affecting not only my work life but also my personal life.
After weighing the pros and cons, I decided to stick to the job and consciously decided to work on overcoming the challenges I was facing.
I experimented with tools and techniques I had learned from coaching courses taken over the years and other resources I found through research to coach myself out of the rut. It was an arduous process which took almost three years to experiment with and slowly overcome. Yet, it is a process that I continuously pursue to overcome the challenges at work and in life.
Through this process, I realized that writing is a pursuit I am deeply passionate about, especially writing online.
Rediscovering My Passion For Writing Online.
I started blogging in 2008, sharing thoughts and reviews on books I read.
Derek Sivers once wrote, "The coolest people I meet are the ones who find me through something I've written", and that's what I loved when I first started blogging; connecting with people and learning from others through my writing. The process of writing, sharing and connecting with others brought a lot of joy in my life in the past, and it was something that I have always wanted to pursue but was never able to commit to consistently. So the past year, I experimented with writing online again, and through the experimentation, I rediscovered my passion for writing.
My love for writing, however, is not the only motivating factor for why I am pursuing writing as a passion project.
It is also motivated by the following:
3 Reasons Why I Am Pursuing Writing Online Again.
#1: Strengthening an underrated skill.
David Perell says that "writing online is a superpower," and I agree.
Writing is an underrated skill that we use daily. Whether in the form of an email, a song or a book, we all write. Writing online can help strengthen writing skills and improve clarity in thinking and learning.
It's a superpower that can help us to communicate effectively, strengthen a resume and build an online presence that will allow us to connect and learn from others.
#2: A creative outlet for expressing thoughts and sharing learnings.
In Design Your New Work Life, the authors found that living more creatively often pops up when they go through the Workview and Lifeview exercises.
Similarly, when I evaluated the happiest moments throughout my career, I found that I was most engaged when working in a creative environment. Working with creative people and projects made the job more exciting and joyful. I see writing as a form of creative expression that can help fill the gap.
I am also exploring writing to engage and learn from others.
#3: Finding meaning by helping my peers.
I have spoken to many of my peers and found that the challenges I've experienced are not uncommon.
Many professionals like myself feel stuck, overwhelmed, lost, and living life without a clear sense of purpose or meaning in our work. I read several articles that suggested picking up passion projects to help find meaning in what we do if we struggle to find meaning in our work. So I decided to use my passion for writing as a platform to share the knowledge gained from my coaching certifications and the lessons I've learned to coach myself out of these challenges.
Writing is my way of creating a positive impact by helping others facing similar problems.
