Personal Responsibility and Writing

 Writing is a big thing for me; I know I can improve if I invest into more personal responsibility and accountability.  I got inspirations from two authors on how to go about this.

Like many people I would love to author a book,  However, I feel intimidated by the sheer number of popular non-fiction books (my favorite genre) out there.  I read works by noted authors like Steven Kotler, Angela Duckworth, and Daniel Pink (to name a few) and marvel both at the depth of research and the time spent on making the contents engaging.  

I often wonder what I can write about and the resources I need to arm myself with enough research material to write a book I also note that it took these authors years of research, data collection, and experimentation to author their work.  I.  One favorite excuse: I an not being affiliated with a university or other research institution 

I got a wake up call while I was reading The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli (translation by Nicky Griffin)..  In this gem of a book, Dobelli tells us he has.neither a lab nor research staff to conduct experiments and gather data.  Rather, he views himself as “as a translator whose job is to interpret and synthesize what I’ve read and learned—to put it in terms others can understand.”.  Well, that does away with my favorite excuse; I can discover topics to write about if I take the personal responsibility.

I know it will take quite a bit of work ethic to write an engaging book.  I got to see what a fierce work ethic translates to in real life when I read about Jean Baptiste Bauby in David Eagleman’s Livewired.  Bauby suffered a massive stroke that paralyzed his body although his mind remained intact.  He could blink his left eye and eventually worked out a way with his therapists to communicate.

They would display letters arranged in order of frequency of usage in French (E was the first, while W was the last).  As they went through the letters, Bauby would blink his left eye when they reached the letter he had in mind.  It may take him two minutes to spell out a word.

Using this technique, he authored a book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.  The Diving Bell is a metaphor for his body which was paralyzed and the butterfly represented his intact mind that flew from one thought to another like a butterfly.  Tragically, Bauby passed away few days after publication of his book.  

I find his fierce work ethic humbling.  Moreover, his story as related by Eagleman, drove me to read The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.  In his book, Bauby recounts how he would think of sentences and paragraphs and mentally edit them so that he would be ready when it is time to communicate his thoughts.

I am firmly convinced a sense of personal responsibility is the most vital ingredient to creating engaging contents. I am grateful for authors that successfully navigated this internal journey and provided us with powerful examples that the journey is both doable and worth the personal sacrifice it would take.