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Abstract

<a href="https://readmedium.com/the-happiness-trap-why-youre-never-satisfied-and-how-to-break-the-cycle-e643ebc788bf">hedonic adaptation</a> that raises your happiness set-point each time you meet it, you may never feel happy with your number of followers. So regardless of your current number, it’s important to try and maintain a perspective of gratitude, not scarcity.</p><h1 id="3668">2. I’ve only made X amount of money!</h1><p id="3c91">The poisonous word here is <i>only</i>.</p><p id="b74c">So the piece you thought was going to go viral ended up making 5 cents. Is that not 5 more cents than you had before publishing the piece?</p><p id="c635">I realize that this amount of money is not going to pay your rent, but if it were that easy to make a living off the platform, everyone would be doing it.</p><p id="71af">One of the great things about Medium is that it offers the potential for you to earn money through doing something you love. If you lose sight of this and become impatient with your earnings, you are missing the point of what so many successful writers on here will tell you: it takes a lot of time and a lot of work without the instant gratification we’ve become accustomed to in this digital era.</p><p id="946c">However, if you stick with it, you will be rewarded with a larger community, more opportunities to share your work, and maybe even be monetarily compensated.</p><h2 id="23cb">You don’t have to only rely on Medium to make money from writing.</h2><p id="d140">Another great thing about Medium? The amount of insight you can gain into other side hustles. The platform sometimes feels like a freelance bible for writers and content creators.</p><h1 id="b65c">3. I don’t have the time to create as much content as Tim Denning.</h1><p id="b79d">Look, there’s only one Tim Denning. Comparing your output to other Medium stars is going to put you on the fast track to burning out all motivation with the platform.</p><ol><li>You don’t find the time, you make it. Research the writing routines of people like Tim on Medium to see if there are any habits you can adopt for better consistency.</li><li>With practice, you won’t need as much time to produce great work. Writing is a muscle, after all.</li></ol><h1 id="be7c">4. Publications just reject me. What’s the point?</h1><p id="99e0">Imagine how difficult it must be to run a successful, well-curated, publication.</p><p id="718c">Even if an editor enjoys a piece they read and thinks it is quite well-written, they still have to make sure the piece is air-tight when it comes to fitting the style of the publication.</p><p id="a699">Take Mind Cafe for example, can you imagine if they loosened up on their standards? They would lose the essence of

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what makes them such a distinguished publication.</p><p id="b689">Think of publications as a code to crack. It’s a fun game that you shouldn’t even want to win each time because that would take away from the feeling of accomplishment when you finally do succeed.</p><p id="94a6">Besides, developing your writing to be able to fit various styles and formats will only strengthen your craft, it can do no harm.</p><h1 id="8775">5. I spent weeks on a piece and no one will publish it.</h1><p id="78fb">Do you think that there could be such a thing as spending too much time on a piece? Plenty of creators will admit to creating their best works in the shortest amounts of time. Set a time limit for yourself, have an outline to flesh out, write your ending first, only edit when the writing is complete, just do whatever it takes to get your ideas out quicker.</p><p id="1fe9">It’s best not to equate time spent on writing to the quality of that writing. Sure, when it comes to editing and coming up with good headlines, this requires your time and attention. But labouring over a draft for weeks on end does not ensure it’s quality in the eyes of an editor.</p><h1 id="1d17">6. How do I sensationalize my boring life to write about it?</h1><p id="94ca">Being vulnerable online is hard and it’s not for everybody. There are plenty of Medium writers who do this with ease and I respect the hell out of them, but it’s not a direct recipe for success.</p><p id="a4a3">Even if I read their content and think of similar personal experiences I could share, I know it wouldn’t feel authentic at this point in time.</p><p id="3316">But you know what can be authentic? Taking the wisdom you’ve gained from these challenging periods of your life and framing it in a way that others can relate to and find value in.</p><p id="3f58">If you don’t feel like you’ve had these challenging experiences to draw from, observe your daily life with a different lens. Become a student to the world and every day will bring new lessons.</p><p id="82f3">Maybe you don’t need to spill your guts publicly on the internet but at least distil these experiences down to tangible life lessons you can share in writing.</p><p id="bf9b">If you are having poisonous thoughts like the kind in this list, it’s in your best interest to find ways to reframe them.</p><p id="d210">You can’t control how long publications take to get back to you or if they reject you, how much money you make, or who follows you, but you can control your perspective on the platform.</p><p id="ee3a">This perspective will determine if you accept defeat by your own doubts, or if you stick around long enough to grow into one of those Medium writers you wish you could be.</p></article></body>

6 Poisonous Thoughts About Medium and How To Reframe Them

Don’t accept defeat by your own doubts.

Like all creative practices, writing on Medium has its ups and downs.

The high of being accepted by a publication and watching the read count climb can quickly be crushed by the rejections from other publications that follow.

While rejection is part of the process, the frustration of having nowhere to publish a piece can make writers wonder if they really are progressing on the platform.

I have seen what happens to mine and my peers’ motivation when we are not reaching certain markers of progress. When the first glimmer of success is not followed by an immediate ascent to the big leagues, we assume that we’ve peaked. What if it’s not a peak, but a plateau? Oprah once said,

“Follow your passion. It will lead you to your purpose.”

What she didn’t include in this quote was a timeline of this leading to your purpose. Is it a couple of months? Years? When following your passion starts to feel like it’s leading nowhere, we tend to want to bail off of the bike before the hill we’re climbing gets too steep.

Without external rewards to validate that you are on the right track, it’s easy to lose belief in your abilities. However, this belief in yourself is likely crumbling due to your own thought patterns.

Here are 6 poisonous thoughts that can be reframed to upgrade your mindset for success on Medium.

1. I don’t have enough followers.

Do you have more than 0 followers?

Even if you have followers in the single digits, those people matter.

Someone had to click “follow” on your profile to become a follower. That small gesture counts for something.

If you change your mindset to value each person who decided to follow you, it’s pretty hard to not feel grateful for your followers regardless of the number.

How many followers are “enough” anyway?

Will you be satisfied when you hit 1k? Or will you be itching to reach 5k by this point?

Thanks to a phenomenon called hedonic adaptation that raises your happiness set-point each time you meet it, you may never feel happy with your number of followers. So regardless of your current number, it’s important to try and maintain a perspective of gratitude, not scarcity.

2. I’ve only made X amount of money!

The poisonous word here is only.

So the piece you thought was going to go viral ended up making 5 cents. Is that not 5 more cents than you had before publishing the piece?

I realize that this amount of money is not going to pay your rent, but if it were that easy to make a living off the platform, everyone would be doing it.

One of the great things about Medium is that it offers the potential for you to earn money through doing something you love. If you lose sight of this and become impatient with your earnings, you are missing the point of what so many successful writers on here will tell you: it takes a lot of time and a lot of work without the instant gratification we’ve become accustomed to in this digital era.

However, if you stick with it, you will be rewarded with a larger community, more opportunities to share your work, and maybe even be monetarily compensated.

You don’t have to only rely on Medium to make money from writing.

Another great thing about Medium? The amount of insight you can gain into other side hustles. The platform sometimes feels like a freelance bible for writers and content creators.

3. I don’t have the time to create as much content as Tim Denning.

Look, there’s only one Tim Denning. Comparing your output to other Medium stars is going to put you on the fast track to burning out all motivation with the platform.

You don’t find the time, you make it. Research the writing routines of people like Tim on Medium to see if there are any habits you can adopt for better consistency.
With practice, you won’t need as much time to produce great work. Writing is a muscle, after all.

4. Publications just reject me. What’s the point?

Imagine how difficult it must be to run a successful, well-curated, publication.

Even if an editor enjoys a piece they read and thinks it is quite well-written, they still have to make sure the piece is air-tight when it comes to fitting the style of the publication.

Take Mind Cafe for example, can you imagine if they loosened up on their standards? They would lose the essence of what makes them such a distinguished publication.

Think of publications as a code to crack. It’s a fun game that you shouldn’t even want to win each time because that would take away from the feeling of accomplishment when you finally do succeed.

Besides, developing your writing to be able to fit various styles and formats will only strengthen your craft, it can do no harm.

5. I spent weeks on a piece and no one will publish it.

Do you think that there could be such a thing as spending too much time on a piece? Plenty of creators will admit to creating their best works in the shortest amounts of time. Set a time limit for yourself, have an outline to flesh out, write your ending first, only edit when the writing is complete, just do whatever it takes to get your ideas out quicker.

It’s best not to equate time spent on writing to the quality of that writing. Sure, when it comes to editing and coming up with good headlines, this requires your time and attention. But labouring over a draft for weeks on end does not ensure it’s quality in the eyes of an editor.

6. How do I sensationalize my boring life to write about it?

Being vulnerable online is hard and it’s not for everybody. There are plenty of Medium writers who do this with ease and I respect the hell out of them, but it’s not a direct recipe for success.

Even if I read their content and think of similar personal experiences I could share, I know it wouldn’t feel authentic at this point in time.

But you know what can be authentic? Taking the wisdom you’ve gained from these challenging periods of your life and framing it in a way that others can relate to and find value in.

If you don’t feel like you’ve had these challenging experiences to draw from, observe your daily life with a different lens. Become a student to the world and every day will bring new lessons.

Maybe you don’t need to spill your guts publicly on the internet but at least distil these experiences down to tangible life lessons you can share in writing.

If you are having poisonous thoughts like the kind in this list, it’s in your best interest to find ways to reframe them.

You can’t control how long publications take to get back to you or if they reject you, how much money you make, or who follows you, but you can control your perspective on the platform.

This perspective will determine if you accept defeat by your own doubts, or if you stick around long enough to grow into one of those Medium writers you wish you could be.