I’ve been making a living as a writer for three years now. But I’ve been writing since I was 16. That means I didn’t get any visible benefits from it for years.

Why did I still continue writing all those years?

1. It’s therapeutic
   We all drive ourselves crazy with excessive thinking at times. But when you put your thoughts into words, they become less scary. When you write down what scares you, you will automatically work on a solution. Sometimes the solution is acceptance. But you need to write those things down first.
2. It improves your self-discipline
   Living a life of pleasure is simple. Everyone can “Netflix and chill.” It’s easy to “hang out” all the time. But those easy things will not give you inner satisfaction. The reason that we don’t do anything useful with our precious time is that we lack self-discipline. But when you write every day, you strengthen your discipline. You can use that better self-discipline to achieve virtually anything in life.
3. You become a better persuader
   Writing is nothing more than persuading the reader with words. But your tools are limited—you can only use words to tell a story. And when you write for yourself, you’re trying to convince yourself of your own thoughts. So the more you write, the better you become at persuasion.
4. You improve your self-knowledge
   Nothing will help you to get to know yourself more than translating your thoughts into words. When you force yourself to write every day, you automatically become more aware of your thoughts. And self-awareness is one of the most important skills that predict career success.
5. It helps you to make better decisions
   Too often, we do something without fully understanding why we do it. Think about it. How often do you answer “I don’t know” when someone asks you “Why did you do that?” That’s the sign of weak thinking. Sure, we don’t know everything. But we must be aware of that too. And when you write about your decision-making process, you will automatically become more aware of the “why.”

I was writing every day years before I made a living as a writer. When I started writing, I immediately sensed that it changed my life.

It didn’t only improve my career and skills—writing every day was therapeutic as well. I didn’t realize why that was at the time.

But when I recently read The Inner Citadel by Pierre Hadot, which is an analysis of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, I realized why that was.

After analyzing the Stoic classic, Meditations, Hadot concluded that Marcus wrote it for himself. The book was never meant to be published. So why did Marcus write? Mainly, because of two reasons: