Tag: Passion

How to Be a Writer

To be a writer means to be alive. To be alive is a gift of privilege, not a right. Writers earn life by practicing what was awarded to us.

Ray Bradbury was a writer and one of the most famous authors of science-fiction that has ever lived. I have read numerous of his short stories, to which my father introduced me when I was about ten years old. I was really surprised recently when I discovered one of his non-fiction books: Zen in the Art of Writing (link to Goodreads).

I decided to become a writer many years ago. Not because it is cool (it is not). Not to become rich (I am not … yet). And not because I have a lot of free time (I don’t). I did it because I could not not do it.

In this article, I will show you a few of the tips which Ray Bradbury shares about writing. Most of them really resonate with me and with my decision to pick up writing.

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Do What You Love or Love What You Do

Doing what you love is bad advice. Working hard, improving the skills that stand out, taking small steps forward, is what gets you to love what you do.

Should you try to do what you love (a.k.a. your passion) for a living? You get bombarded with this question over and over again in your everyday life. It is on the social media (e.g. people posting about doing what they love and getting paid for it). It is also on the TV (e.g. famous celebrities evangelizing their lifestyles and how they satisfy even their weirdest pleasures). And of course, it is also in the movies and songs (e.g. those influencers that changed the world by pursuing their dreams). In short, doing what you love is about following your passion.

In this article, I will argue against following your passion. And I will argue for another approach – adopting a different mindset, deliberately working on your habits, defining the areas where you are great, and, ultimately, learning to love what you do. In short, defining the passion as the product of your work, rather than defining work as the product of your passion.

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