What Writing LinkedIn Articles For 52 Weeks Has Taught Me

Hi all, Coach Nadia here. Happy Holidays!

It has been nearly one year since I committed to writing a single LinkedIn article per week. Eventually, these articles served as the basis of my website blog at www.beyonddiscoverycoaching.com. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and through amazing one to one coaching partnerships, have never been limited in sourcing topic ideas from real life clients. Thank you clients!

I set my sights on consistently writing valuable content that actually helped folks in the career journey. Whether they were working with me in a paid coaching partnership or not, I felt my writing was an authentic way of reaching people I’d never meet, work with, or know.

I wrote every single week for 52 weeks. This is what I learned.

Everyone Has Something To Give

Sharing your genius is a matter of trust and confidence in yourself, not competency. There will always be someone who knows more than you, more educated, more advanced in their journey or more experienced in life. That is a statistical fact, accept it!

People connect with your energy, what you put out into the universe and how you show up consistently and powerfully. I’m not the best writer, I’m not the best coach. But I show up with a strong presence and intentionality with my clients each and every session. They know that, and that’s what resonates with them. Not my greatness.

Writing every week for a year taught me it’s more important to find my voice and craft a genuine and authentic message vs. worrying about the mechanics of writing. Has my writing gotten better? I’d like to think doing anything 52 times allows for a margin of improvement but honestly, I’ve never gone back to my earlier writings and compared them with content I write now.

I write what I feel to be honest and true and as I get more honest and true with myself, I believe it’s reflected in my writing. Everyone has something to give and finding how you can give to others in a way that feels right to you will serve you a life time.

Writing Is Therapeutic

There were weeks I didn’t want to write. Sometimes I pushed through and did it begrudgingly with little to no excitement and other times, I just simply didn’t write. I listened to my brain and my heart and sat in the emotions of why. Why didn’t I want to write, why didn’t I feel I had anything to say, why had I lost my voice?

I found the reasons of not wanting to write had nothing to do with actual writing. I was often stressed from work or challenged with learning something new about running a business (which was often the case!). But most importantly, I was out of balance. And when I am out of balance, I find it hard to show up for others when I am not showing up for myself.

To me, writing is therapeutic. It allows me to be alone with my thoughts. To find stillness in a busy existence without isolation or seclusion. To sit with a morning cup of hot tea and search within myself, to find the words that serve me best and help articulate my essence with others through writing was therapeutic for me.

Force yourself to slow down, reflect, feel, search and be with yourself. If the words are meant to find you, they will. Until then, keep asking and keep listening.

To Know Others, You Must Know Yourself

I, like many traditional aged Millennials, have had a challenging career. I graduated college in 2007 and worked at a big box store for a year because I didn’t know what to do with my career. I then started a professional job search in 2008…. At the start of a recession. Yeah, not ideal.

Working with clients over the past year going through job searches in yet another recession has brought up a lot of unresolved and painful remnants of my own career journey I needed to finally confront.

Writing content about my own experience at the start of my career (and honestly, many of the things I’m going through right now in my career) gave me the medium to revisit, reflect and move through the elements that challenge me. I can now appreciate what I have learned, what I know about careers and coaching and give myself grace to accept what was the past and what is now the present.

To know others, you must know yourself. To show up for others, you must show up for yourself. So much of coaching is doing the hard and never ending work of knowing yourself. Its’ goal is not perfection but rather authenticity.

My experience makes me the coach I am today, positive or negative. But I now know I get to choose how I carry my experiences forward and I get to decide what serves me no longer in who I want to be. Writing helped me explore that, writing helped me know myself.

Finals Words…

Was there anything magical about the number 52? Not really. It was just an easy way to keep myself accountable on a weekly basis. Was there anything significant about actually publishing my writing? Again, not really.

Most of the joy and value I got out of writing for a year came from the act of writing itself, not the outcome. As a business owner, did I need content to publish? Yes. Did I push myself to publish when imposter syndrome kicked in or I didn’t think I had anything to give? Yes.

Whether you write for others or yourself, writing deepens your value and voice, it pushes you to search within and it dares you to keep trying, to keep growing. I’ve never had an appreciation of writing. I often associated writing with forced school assignments.

I challenge you to rewrite your narrative and create a new relationship with writing. One where you are equals. With the goal not being the best, but rather, in balance and compliment to each other. Develop your writing and your writing will develop you.

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Meet The Writer!

Hi! My name is Nadia Ibrahim-Taney and I help people design happy and fulfilling careers through authentic career coaching. My expertise includes career exploration guidance, resume writing, interview prep and LinkedIn profile optimization. My pronouns are She/ Her/ Hers and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I focus on how diverse identities impact and influence folks holistically and professionally. Please connect with me on LinkedIn or at Nadia@beyonddiscoverycoaching.com

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