Following Your Curiosity

My personal journey in selecting writing topics

I wanted to share with you today how I came to write about what it is I write about in this newsletter.

Many, if not all writers will suffer from the paradox of choice and the pull of fads and trends that can derail and confuse us. I don’t consider myself a writer, even when Substack says I’m in the top 20% of writers for consistency it still doesn’t sit right with me.

I started this newsletter because I have ADHD and for the last 9 years since leaving the Royal Marines I’ve missed my routine and as much as I’ve tried to find it always felt one step ahead of me. A lot of this was down to my obsession with things or rather, shiny object syndrome people with ADHD seem to have. I was diagnosed at 32, two years ago and had a ‘meh’ attitude when finding out. It was hardly a surprise and not something I deemed a handicap because when I’m interested in something I go all in. A trait bestowed on me that can be a superpower.

I decided last year on holiday that I needed to direct my energy and my constant bouncing around into something. A kind of metaphorical punchbag if you will. I’d thought about starting a newsletter before but as many of you will know, that first and most important question is the hardest. What the fuck do I write about?

Well, 10 months ago on that sun lounger in Crete, when I decided to write a newsletter my options were:

1. A newsletter about health but particularly hypertrophy (building muscle) as nothing infuriates and saddens me as much as when I hear and see people who believe they can’t have, or near as dam have the body they dream of and deserve. Being a former Royal Marine and always in the gym this would have been easy for me.

2. A newsletter on cocktails. I like to drink them but more than that I just love making cocktails and love seeing people’s reactions to them. I feel like an alchemist behind a bar and if it wasn’t for the lifestyle that that kind of career brings (I’m a morning person) I could see myself opening up my bar.

3. An investing newsletter. I’m ‘into’ investing. I find it fun and enjoy doing deep drives into businesses. This all sounds terribly boring but it’s a lot more fun than you would first think. We all support small and big companies with the products we buy but most of us will know barely anything about them. I enjoy reading about the people who made these companies and the reasons for them being and doing what they do.

4. Reading.

Now, the first three I wouldn’t even need to find content on as I could talk about or look into them all day. If that was my job I couldn’t see a problem with me doing it for 8 hours a day. I also see the potential for making money in them. I have dozens of workout routines and research I’ve collected and made myself from years of naturally doing this. I’ve made my own cocktails and often thought about writing a book or making a course I could sell. Investment deep dives are a dime a dozen and people pay a premium for the privilege of you doing all the hard work.

Reading, though was tricky for me to get my head around. I love reading, more so with each passing year but a newsletter about reading. Seriously? Unfortunately, for my brain anyway, this harder choice was the one I decided to write about. There are the obvious things to write about such as book reviews, note-taking, selection etc but I’ve written about almost none of that.

It took me just under 6 months to get my second subscriber (I was my first, pathetic I know). I was writing to no one but figuratively and literally myself. I thought many times about ‘switching lanes’ with a constant battle between what I deemed my next best options, the health or investment newsletter but I kept on going. Ignorance is bliss after all.

The truth is though it never really felt shit. I mean, I didn’t like that nobody was reading my work but it certainly didn’t stop me and nor was it going to. Here’s why think my decision was the right one:

1. Out of the 4 I went with what I truly enjoyed the most, reading, and because reading allowed me to shoehorn in the other 3 it allowed me flexibility. Now, I’ve written 1 post on the Vesper Martini, my favourite cocktail and exactly 0 on working out or investing explicitly.

2. Because I chose what I was naturally the most interested in, and was naturally the most broad and flexible I never felt trapped. Pivoting, although not something I have done yet is always a viable option.

3. I picked something I naturally do all the time, giving me an edge over people who do things only because they wish to gain something from doing so, usually status, money or both.

Retrospectively looking back it wasn’t all smooth sailing. There is seemingly a constant barrage from my monkey brain about going after these, what I deem, easier options. After all, reading to write means going through a lot of material and some of it isn’t very good. Therefore it’s time-consuming. Recycling one of my 12-week hypertrophy programmes from men to women or from bulking to cutting would take about 15 minutes. But one of the best things I did was figure out exactly what to read about and thus what to write about. Once I figured this out I put it somewhere I’d see it every day to remind myself when I’m going astray. My profile. For me, it is as follows:

What I’ve done there has made my life easier as a writer. I gave myself a constraint by saying I read and share but also left often the possibility of writing about almost anything so long as a human is behind it. What I’ve done is create a lens for me to see things.

Creating your lens

When I look back at my posts there’s Seneca, the Stoic philosopher who for me has this gravitational pull on my thinking, actions and writing. His writing is beautiful and seemingly everything he says can be put on a poster above your bed or in your office meeting room. There’s not a rich, poor, happy or unhappy human that wouldn’t benefit from reading Seneca. At least I think so anyway.

Then there’s an article about Ernest Shackleton, a great polar expedition explorer with too many stories of survival, leadership and bravery to almost believe. Reading him will almost certainly put your life into perspective and when I’m feeling sorry for myself about something I often think about what he and his men went through over 100 years ago.

My article on How to Read a Book can also be used to not only make you a better reader but intelligently consume content. How important is that in our world today? I think it’s pretty important.

Ray Dalio, one of the richest fund managers in the world has written two books on principles. Something all people would do well to develop themselves and my latest article is about Charlie Munger, a self-made billionaire and somebody who will be remembered more by people for the wisdom he passed down rather than the billions of dollars he created for himself, his companies and shareholders.

It may be confusing for some when they go on my page and see a Stoic sage, a Polar explorer, two self-made billionaires and two guys who wrote a book about how to read a book but I don’t see it that way. Again:

These are all people who have things that should and I think need to be shared. For most of us, life is a battle, but it doesn’t have to be. For what Seneca can teach us about the simplicity of life’s needs Charlie Munger can teach us about how to spot and deter our own biases. What can a polar explorer tell you about how to make your life easier? Well, here’s what a very well-to-do and accomplished person had to say about him some 40 years later when he tried to do what Shackleton did:

“I do not know how they did it, except that they had to.”

How many times have you wanted to do something put felt that pull, that voice inside your head screaming “You can’t do this!” If all you take from the book is a perspective that your situation can never be as bad as Shackleton’s and his 27 men then you’ve come away with something.

So if you’re stuck on what direction to go remember, it’s better to be roughly right than precisely wrong. Picking something that can be viewed through a lens is guaranteed to put you on the right path.

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I read and share about history’s greatest minds, leaders and achievers, distilling their insights into actionable advice for everyday life. Share with a close friend if this article has helped you.

Until next time, The School of Knowledge.

*Photo by Ricky Esquivel: https://www.pexels.com/photo/low-angle-photo-of-building-staircase-2100956/