40 Posts in 30 Days. Did I Complete My Goal?

It was a lot harder than I thought

Well, the end of the month is over and we’re finally in August so how did I do on my 30 Day Challenge?

In my original pledge post, my goal for the month of July was to upload 4o articles in 30 days. I told myself to come up with 30 articles for 30 different publications as well as self-publishing 10 articles. I ended up finishing the month with 31 posts instead of my goal of 40.

I’m not upset, just disappointed. Here’s the recap:

Why I Failed

I love writing and I think it can be a great way to relax your mind and calm your body. I love to write because of that and it gives me a better feeling when my work get’s noticed.

Things were going great the first couple of days until some of the publications I applied to wouldn’t add me as a writer, still to this day about half of the publications I tried to join still don’t have me as a writer yet. In total, I had 22 articles published in 22 different publications. It was stressful to write every day but before even doing the challenge it’s necessary to give yourself a writing schedule in order to make things smoother.

I ended up posting 31 articles all spread out in the month of July which would’ve equaled up to a complete challenge if I was doing it with the original 30 Day Challenge rules of 30 articles

IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALWAYS MAKE DRAFTS FIRST BEFORE POSTING.

Towards the end of the challenge, frustration was starting to appear for me as countless publications kept rejecting my articles I took valuable time and work on. To make things worse, I actually ended up breaking my elbow on my dominant arm so that was just a motivation killer for me to write as it gave me a sharp pain in my arm where I couldn’t even move it.

It sounds like an excuse but I don’t want to be throwing excuses out like it’s nothing. I definitely was not prepared on how much writing there would be but obviously, my fingers are gonna move a lot on the keyboard if my original plan was 40 posts in 30 days.

My previous goals from the challenge

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible”

-Tony Robbins

Towards the end of the pledge post, I made sure to set personal goals for myself on taking the next step with Medium as a way to challenge myself even more and test my ability to complete the goals I set myself. By setting realistic goals for myself I gain an incredible amount of satisfaction because I told myself that I can do it.

Along with a goal of completing the 30 Day writing challenge I gave myself certain goals like my getting a specific amount of total views or followers, and unlike the actual 30 Day writing challenge, I managed to achieve these.

Looking back at my personal goals last month:

Goal: Earn $10 with Medium Partner Program

Result: $26 earned with the Partner Program

Goal: Follower count to 300

Result: 400+ followers by August

Goal: Combined monthly views of 500

Result: 1,239 monthly views

I’m happy with how my growth has been on Medium so far and I work the hardest I can to maintain the organic growth, completing goals I challenge myself gives a high boost in confidence and I’m striving for more results in the Medium statistics for this month as well.

Advice for anyone wanting to join

Any account on Medium big or small should challenge themselves and participate in the 30 Day Challenge. There is proof all around from other results that your account will grow by participating in the challenge. I may have challenged myself a little too much since 40 articles in 30 days is kind of ridiculous to pull off but you can always set your own rules and the number of articles to post.

For any writer trying to join the challenge, I recommend aiming to publish 10–20 articles in different publications.

It’s going to stress you out, nothing about this challenge is easy that’s why you’re rewarded in the end when you complete the goal. Publications are your best friend it’s important to have patience when submitting your work to them.

Some of my favorite publications were used for this challenge, if you want reliable pubs that will almost always accept your writing (if they follow their guidelines) I recommend thinking of Illumination and SYNERGY. They have very professional editors and accept articles quite quickly because of how many editors the publications have thanks to their creator Dr Mehmet Yildiz. These publications give you an amazing chance at going viral because of the number of combined followers they have and their loyal readers. My most viewed article is in the SYNERGY publication and I will definitely submit more articles to them. Write To Inspire was one of the first publications I fell in love with on Medium because of the amazing advice Samra and the writers give for beginner writers. It’s also another reliable publication for a challenge like this.

If you’re interested in taking a leap and joining the 30 Day Challenge, you can see the submission guidelines here:

Takeaway

So yes, I didn’t complete the challenge.

I failed to exceed my expectations but I’m still proud of the work I’ve done and the articles made in that time so it was all worth it in the end.

I plan on working harder each month with my writing schedule because the key to Medium followers and views is consistency in your writing.

I want to thank the creator of the challenge, David Majister for this amazing opportunity and for the fact that this publication exists. Set a list of publications that you want to write to and get to it!

Connect with me here One more thing, I have a weekly newsletter about living the best life you can “Live Life Lavish”, subscribe to it if you want to better yourself and your consciousness.