The amazing hidden benefit of writing

Maybe this benefit is unique to me because my writing is niche-less. Well, I do have a few themes I consistently write about. But since I started my journey on Medium a few months ago, I’ve stuck with the “build it, they will come” approach to writing. I document whatever random ideas come to my head, and a lot of ideas come to my head —some are life stories from the past, some are current experiences.

It’s the latter I want to talk about. Here’s a very simple relationship: if you live an interesting life, you have more stories to tell. What I’ve noticed is that since I started writing, I am actively trying to live an interesting life! “Interesting” is relative. Call it intense, full of experiences. It doesn’t mean I’m planning a trip to the Himalayas. That I can’t afford. But whenever I feel lazy, down, or fatigued, I am often able to find a new kind of motivation to get out of my room and experience the world.

And maybe “trying” is not the right way to describe it. Life is life — you can’t make up experiences. But I’m definitely more aware of my current surroundings and experiences, even the seemingly trivial ones.

A couple of months ago I was running — like I always do. I run every day! It was a very easy short run on Monday in Irvine (about which I wrote recently by the way). My oldest son was giving a tennis lesson to a fellow teenager and while I was waiting for him, I went jogging around the UCI (University of California, Irvine). Even though I then lived closed to the UCI campus, I’d…