In February, I made it a goal to start building my Medium profile. I wanted to be known in the writing (and Medium) space for my work… and get a decent income from it.
I was on track with progress for the first few months with a consistent writing schedule and increasing income from the Medium Partner Program. It wasn’t a lot but it was enough to convince me that I can do this.
I can write and get paid for it.
It was short-lived because greed got the better of me. It seemed like opportunities to earn more money started popping out from everywhere.
Opportunities to join new ventures (with others), to start my own e-commerce business, to start trading, and many more blocked my path. The promise of good money was so tempting especially when I was financially struggling.
I needed the money and I wanted to earn it fast.
At the back of my mind, I knew that I could earn that money through Medium. But I knew it would take months or years.
So, I got distracted.
Instead of spending hours on improving my writing and publishing more articles, I was on YouTube. I spent hours working on things that could (but not for certain) bring in more money.
In the end, my writing progress stalled. There’s still passive income from the past articles but my growth stopped.
Not Playing To My Strengths
All these other “opportunities” didn’t utilize my strength (and passion) in writing. I spent hours working on something from scratch instead of leveraging on what I do best.
If I had used those hours on producing 10x more articles on Medium, I’m certain my Medium payout would be much higher.
What’s Done Is Done
Well, we learn from our mistakes, right? That’s why it’s good to do a self-evaluation every 3 months or so. You need to be honest with yourself and accept when you’ve made a mistake. If what you’re doing is not right, you got to stop.
If you’ve been distracted as I have, you need to stop. Self-evaluate your life.
- Are you moving in the right direction?
- Is what you’re doing right now aligned with your goals?
- What’s working or not working out for you?
- What’s next?
I did my self-evaluation. I know what I have to focus on. I hope you do too.
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Previously published on Medium.com.
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The post Are You Getting Distracted by Things That Don’t Matter? Me Too. appeared first on The Good Men Project.