Don’t Compare Yourself to the Giants on Medium
Envy won’t get you anywhere except bitter, tired, uninspired and stuck.
The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor. — Horace
Envy is the root of failure for a lot of people.
One thing that stops me cold from writing and publishing on Medium is comparing my stats to the stats of Medium giants who’ve been here longer than me. And comparing myself to the ones who’ve been here for a shorter time than me and have twice my follower count — especially those few.
A writing career is full of rejection and setbacks.
Writing is not for the faint of heart.
Writing is personal, good writing is always personal. Writing that resonates has a bit of your personality infused into your words, sentences, paragraphs, stories, and when success doesn’t come or doesn’t come as quickly as you’d like, it can hurt.
You can take it personally. Don’t. At least, try your hardest not to.
Rejection from publications can make you want to stop writing for good. What didn’t they like, maybe they don’t like me?
If you dwell on those questions and rejection alone, it won’t help you write more or better. One thing to keep in mind when rejected from a publication is writing is subjective. You won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, which doesn’t mean your writing is necessarily bad.
I read a piece the other day from an author who said most of the writing on Medium is pretty awful. I do not think this is true. I see a lot of talent on Medium, even from writers who have never written or published before.
You have to have the right mindset to do anything which requires you to stretch and grow as writing does.
You have to put yourself out there, especially if you’re a writer who wants to be read.
If you want to write for Medium, a thick skin helps as does not indulging in the temptation to compare yourself to others.
I forget which influencer said it, but don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle. Growth comes when measuring your journey and advancement against your progress six months ago, three weeks ago, yesterday.
It doesn’t come from comparing yourself to others.
Stay clear of negativity online.
Medium-centric Facebook groups can be fun and helpful, but some are tinged with more than a hint of negativity, grumblings of low pay, and a lot of judgment about what people are writing about.
Write whatever you want to write about, your story and perspective will be different from everyone else’s.
Reminder: stories about Medium, the platform, will not be curated, like this one. With that said, write all the Medium stories you want if you want to, and you like helping people.
I get satisfaction when a reader leaves a comment saying, “thank you so much for this information, it makes me want to keep writing,” or “this inspired me.”
No one writer has the cornerstone on any topic on Medium, and other writers don’t dictate your journey no matter how much they complain. They have their journey; they don’t make the rules, Medium does.
If you want to write about how you made 30K on one story, have at it.
Warning: people will be jealous. Ignore them.
If you want to write a story about how your cat watches the news with you every night, go for it. Just make it entertaining, and people will read.
Some Medium Facebook groups are positive and helpful; I spend most of my time in those.
Read other writers, don’t compare stats.
What inspires me more than looking at the number of claps of more successful writers is the readers’ comments posted on my stories.
Read more successful writers but don’t dwell on their engagement. Telling yourself things like, “it doesn’t seem fair. Why do they have 65K claps, I could write that!”
But you didn’t.
Instead of looking at others and saying, that is not fair, look at others and ask, “what are they doing that I’m not doing? What could I try even if I don’t think it would work? What could I apply to achieve the same level of success or greater success than I see others having?
If you are looking around and only asking yourself, “Why is this person succeeding, it’s not fair, they can’t even write well? Why is this person’s blog taking off? Why do they have a book deal? Why does their one Medium post have 25k claps, and mine has only 10?” you are looking in the wrong place, and asking the wrong questions.
We all experience jealousy and envy, we are human. Don’t beat yourself up if it creeps in occasionally, but don’t obsess over it.
Instead, revamp your mindset.
Step One
Take a look at your mindset
Develop a winning mindset.
Ask the right questions from an observational standpoint. What is this person doing that I’m not doing?
Sometimes I will glance at an article and see how much engagement it has, and then I dissect it, break it down, paragraph by paragraph. I study the format, look at the sentence structure, and then I recreate it exactly except with a different topic.
Once I started doing this without taking it personally, stories began gaining traction.
Step Two
Be humble
Be willing to accept that you don’t know everything about your field of expertise or the topic you choose to write.
Even if you’ve been writing for a long time, you still need to ask questions and be humble about the answers.
Maybe you are a better writer than most of the writers on Medium, but you don’t have the formatting down, this can trip you up. Medium is looking for a distinct look to their stories.
Accept that you might not know everything you need to know about a goal you are trying to achieve. Ask. Read a book. Get a mentor, take a class.
Step Three
Be willing to try new things
Write about new topics that you’ve never written about before. Medium is hit or miss. Many times it has nothing to do with the writing.
One of my most-read pieces, I wrote and edited in under 30 minutes.
I also wrote three articles about the same exact subject using three different formatting styles but mostly with the same words, and only one took off.
There is no magic formula on Medium, except that it helps to nail the title, photo, and first paragraph, but sometimes when you nail all three, plus great writing, no one reads it.
The point is, keep trying new things, keep experimenting.
Be humble enough to say you’re not 100% sure what makes for a successful story on Medium. Try new ideas and listen to your audience.
Decide to succeed
What does success look like, and how are you going to achieve it?
You first need the will to succeed. And the courage to pivot when things aren’t working.
If you do what you’ve always done, you will get where you’ve always gotten.
Think of yourself as a successful person first. Seeing yourself as successful will not make you a success alone, but action plus a positive mindset will get you to your goal faster.
When you start thinking like a successful person, you take different actions throughout the day to move the needle toward your goal.
If you want to make money from writing and believe you can improve over time, when you see yourself finding success, you will be more likely to take the necessary steps to include daily writing, even if it is just ten minutes a day.
If you want to achieve your goal faster, turn your ten-minute a day habit into a four-hour a day habit.
Want to be a better basketball player? Start shooting hoops from the foul shot line every day for an hour, join a league.
Michael Jordan famously said, “why would I think about missing a shot I haven’t taken yet?”
Why would you think no one will read your Medium story if you have published one yet? If you have publicly shared and have zero engagement, it’s time to reevaluate, change your mindset, and keep trying.
Believe you can.
Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve. — Napoleon Hill
If you shift your mindset to a positive one and work to improve your craft, you will have a better chance of success than if you have a negative frame of mind telling you, “life isn’t fair, why can’t I find a large audience?” That kind of thinking will make you want to quit.
Think of yourself as a writer, like someone who will succeed — things will change for you.
Envy will get you nowhere and will decrease your motivation to succeed.
Be careful what you read, and do not compare your start to someone else’s middle. Or your start to someone else’s beginning. Don’t allow what you can’t control (other people’s journeys) to dictate your mindset before you’ve started.
Understand one thing; it’s whoever wants it more, that’s who wins. Develop a successful mindset, one that is willing to focus and succeed.
Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering type-A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.
