Writing is Not a Competitive Sport

Image courtesy of Ponsuwan/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net When I take a yoga class I try not to pay any attention to what
other people are doing on their yoga mats.  It is, of course, tempting to peek at others and see how flexible they are, then try to match or exceed them.  I suppose this is human nature.  Perhaps, more accurately, it is ego-nature.  But does this improve my yoga practice?  Of course not. 
 



The goal of yoga is to be in the moment and to quiet your thoughts.  So, obviously, by comparing myself to everyone else I am not doing yoga at all.  What I am doing is turning yoga into a competitive sport.  

The same holds true for writing.  Comparing my writing to other writers’ work will not make me a better writer.  It will, however, make me a crazier one.  I could spend my days comparing myself
to the giants of literature and feeling like a failure until I am too depressed to even pick up my pen.  But I don’t.  (Okay, there have been a few days like that.  That’s how I learn this stuff.)

Writing, like yoga, is not a competitive sport. But sometimes it is easy to forget this. Deep down I know that what I really want is to write like me.  Specifically, I want to write to the best of my abilities.  I want to reach my highest potential.  I want to see who I am on the page.  This is my goal.  Trying to write like someone else, even wishing I were a different sort of writer, takes me farther away from this goal.  

In this way being at my desk is a lot like being on my yoga mat.  I try to keep my focus on my
own practice, not on anyone else’s.  And when my ego-nature occasionally surfaces I remind myself of why I am doing my practice:

-to reach my highest potential

- to be awake in the world

-to know my deepest self

- to be compassionate to myself and others

That’s why I do yoga.  And that is why I write.  
 
Why do you write?