7 Ways to Trust the Process

When times are tough and you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, trust the process.

1. Focus on providing value.

Value = GOOD content

Anybody can produce trash content. Consistently posting good content is what makes the difference between valuable articles and trash articles. So how do you post good content? By caring about your readers. Love them, be grateful that they chose to read your article or follow you. Write to them, try to change even just 1 person’s life with your work. That’s providing value.

2. Reward small successes

Winning in such a great feeling. But it’s a rare one. So don’t think you can only be happy when you’ve reached top writer status or get followed by Tim Denning. Reward the small successes. Maybe getting a new follower, receiving a nice comment, or even just completing your article. By rewarding yourself for the small wins, you’ll get addicted to the feeling of winning and it’ll help you keep going.

3. Kick the idea of money out the window

If money is your main focus for writing on Medium, you will lose. Don’t worry it's ok. I started writing on medium for money too. And it’s ok to write for money. Just don’t let that be your number one goal for writing on medium.

If you write on medium with the sole focus of only making money, it’ll distract you from doing all the important things you need to do in order to succeed. Also, you’ll miss out on so much cool and fun stuff on the platform. Some articles will make hundreds of dollars and some make pennies. And when you’re writing just for money, you’ll end up feeling unmotivated and want to quit.

So just for now if you’re not making $100 a month, and if you want to make that much (I know I do). Then brush the idea of making money under the carpet for now and focus on content creation. I promise you, you’ll end up making a lot more money a lot faster.

4. Don’t look at your stats for a month

It’s easy to fall into the trap of constantly checking stats and depending on your happiness and success on how many views you have. I’ve been guilty of refreshing my stats at least twice every 10 minutes. Don’t do that. As tempting as it may be to check your views, refrain from doing so for at least a month. Because just like money, views will distract you from creating good content.

Change your thinking to view success as publishing an article, not getting 100 views. Do that for a month and watch your focus on creating content increase. And at the end of the 30 days, you’ll probably have more views than you expected.

5. If you’re good enough, then you’ll be okay.

Trusting the process requires you to trust yourself. If you believe you can create quality content over and over, then you can believe that the process will amount to significant results.

Sometimes when you’re lacking confidence in the process or system, confidence in yourself and the quality of your work can comfort you and keep you producing content.

6. Don’t have an end goal, focus on the habit

I know, I know you’ve read every possible article on building good habits and meditating, and taking cold showers. But I’m not talking about that BS. I’m talking about automating the tasks included in writing to make the process easier to manage. Because you’re more likely to stick to something that’s easy. So make your writing system from having an idea to publishing as easy as possible. Here’s a sample system for you to work with.

• Keep a notebook on you to write ideas whenever you have them
• Write down 10 article ideas every day
• Set aside 2 hours for writing at 10:00 AM every day
• Use a list of ideas to select an article topic
• Do research as needed and write an article
• Let the article marinate for a couple of hours or a day.
• Go back to the article and edit it raw
• Choose an image for your article and submit it to a publication in the morning
• As soon as it is published promote it through Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram

Rinse and repeat every day for 21 days and you’ll have a writing habit down. With that habit down, you’ll gain momentum. Use that momentum and stay patient for 6 months to 5 years and you’ll have the success you oh so desperately desired.

7. Keep quiet

My last tip to you is to keep your work and process to yourself. I advise you on this because when I started writing I was such a loudmouth. If I got 10 views or a new follower, I would yell it out to every person I knew. Now I try my hardest to go against my temptations and keep my work to myself. Why?

Because when you share every little thing going on in your side hustle, it loses all the mystery and value. You become proud and when you fall short on your process everyone around you is disappointed. Also, everyone will have their criticisms or expectations. And you don’t need that extra stress on top of your mountain of worries. So keep your process and side hustle to yourself, at least until you’ve achieved the success you’re comfortable sharing.