Be the Loudest Voice in Your Head

“Writing is an act of discovering what you think and what you believe.” – Dan Pink

The loudest voice in your head is your own. Sometimes, you become almost immune to it. Like when you’re at a very loud concert. After a while, you can have a conversation with the person next to you and be almost oblivious to the volume of the band playing.  The reverse analogy works as well. Sometimes the sheer number of other voices can overwhelm your voice. Now you’re at that same concert and there is no way you can hear what the person is saying next to you. So you just nod your head and smile. 

In both cases, you are not engaging with thoughts that are constantly running through your head. Thoughts that create or frame your perspective. The story you tell yourself about everything.

Take a moment and pick something that has been bothering you. It can be a relationship, a project, a belief, anything that when you are thinking about it, it nags at you. Brainstorm for 5 minutes asking yourself why and write whatever comes to mind down on paper. Don’t type. Use a pen and paper and write it down. 

Something magical happens when you write out your thoughts. Your internal perspective is now external, it’s written down. It’s tangible. It helps you cut through the noise of other voices and highlights what you say about it. These words are the story you are telling yourself. Do you agree with them? If not, start re-writing the story. After all, you’re the author.