Simplicity in a Medium Article — right here…
It’s been a long day at work and finally, I get to sit down and relax. There’s nothing exciting or even vaguely interesting on TV so I grab my phone. Facebook is boring, so I open the Medium app in search of something to read. I’m just scrolling through my homepage looking for something interesting, and there it is.
My curiosity has been engaged, what is this article about?
The picture doesn’t reveal much at all. Two lucky people with their feet resting on the side of the pool. It’s now all on the opening paragraph as to whether I read it all or not.
Before I know it, I have taped the link for the article to appear before me, and off I go, my eyes consuming the list of you don’t have too’s.
Make an impression
The key to successful writing I believe is to challenge the reader to question what they believe they know, to prompt them to question their knowledge or position in life.
This can be at any level, from helping to learn something you didn’t know through to just forcing you to question your everyday behaviours.
Sometimes the article can be very in-depth as it postures to make it’s point, other times simplicity wins.
You Don’t Have To Do It
That’s what happened with this one, its simplicity was that it was only a 1 minute read, and checking afterwards just 164 words.
164 words…nothing really when you consider that some publications are looking for nearly 3000 before they will publish.
But what was so profound about these 164 words?
The last three words.
You get to.
They followed multiple lines of ‘You don’t have to’. From you don’t have to keep showing up through to you don’t have to tell your story. You don’t have to do any of these things. And that’s point,
You get to…
I have the choice, it’s down to me, I could choose to say I don’t have to, but I get to do it, or I get to take the risk.
I was reminded of this but another quote I heard recently.
If it’s to be, then its on me.
In the day to day of things happening with all the stresses and strains of life, it’s easy to forget that it’s down to me, my decision.
I think this is the fundamental difference between having a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. I like to think I have a growth mindset, but as I read this article I became painfully aware that at times I had allowed these limiting statements to take control, thus adopting a fixed mindset.
Thank you to Josh Spector for providing the inspiration to not just write this article, but to help me refocus on the knowledge that I get to…
