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Writing as a way to access one’s own mind

by | Sep 16, 2021 | Open Leadership, Self-Knowledge

Joan Didion
Joan Didion

My profession is as a Sounding Board, to support them on their journey from Good to Great to Elite. A key part of my role is in a coaching space, to help them sound out their thoughts and gain clarity on what their message is and what they need to focus on, as well as how to communicate it. Often this process helps them see what they cannot see for themselves without such outside support.

However, who helps me do the same for myself? Who is my sounding board? my coach? Yes, I am self-aware enough to have peers and coaches support me in developing my own thinking in different areas, but can I “self-coach”. Broadly not, as “we cannot see the goldfish bowl we swim in” (as I wrote around here).

However, today a fresh thought for me has occurred.

Earlier in 2021, I wrote: “Write to discover your thoughts“. This quote, though, from the author Joan Didion, helps me evolve beyond what I wrote.

Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write. I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.

Joan Didion

Didion makes me consider that one reason I write is to “self-coach” to help me find out what I’m thinking through the process of writing.

What methods do you have to access your own mind, whether from an external source of support or for yourself?