Writing | Life
How Does Publishing 400 Articles on Medium Affect Your Life?
From a writing experiment to a life-changing experience
This article, my 400th on Medium, marks another milestone since I retired a few years ago! According to Medium, I published my first article on February 3, 2020–424 days ago.
When I started writing on Medium, I had no expectations and thought writing was a good way to express some of the ideas in the book I had just published, Uncommon Sense. After using some of the content from my book for nearly 50 articles, I started writing on leadership topics that have interested me for years. I had no idea I would nearly exhaust those topics and continue writing hundreds of additional articles.
From humble beginnings
Before Medium, I had written only a few articles for magazines during my career, mainly to support the commercial products produced by the companies I ran. Writing and publishing on Medium has been a wholly new and different experience for me.
About a year ago, I accepted a challenge from Dr. Mehmet Yildiz in his new Illumination publication to write daily for a month. At the time, I remember wondering if I had 30 articles worth of material left in me as this was after I had exhausted articles derived from my book. To come up with 30 completely original articles in 30 days seemed like a daunting task at the time. Little did I know it would become a blessing in disguise. Not only did I meet the challenge, but I have written and published an article nearly every day since! When will it end? I am not sure.
Being retired, I find writing an excellent way to keep my brain active. For decades I have loved reading and learning about leadership and the philosophy of life. I have recently noticed a shift in my writing from focusing mainly on leadership to including more about life and inspiration.
Since I began writing articles, or stories as Medium calls them, I understand why writing Is important to many people. It is a wonderful way to express yourself, think, learn, and expand your mind. Could anything be more important? Well, yes, but writing ranks up there with some of the best life has to offer.
Soon after Dr. Mehmet Yildiz started his first Illumination publication, he asked me to serve as an editor. The growth of the publication is amazing. In all of my years, I have never seen someone make something so successful so quickly. He is an extraordinary man, to say the least!
Becoming an editor has been an eye-opening experience for me. I see so many writers around the world striving to do great work resulting in some amazing writing. Their efforts give me much hope for future generations. I feel so many of us are on the same boat, striving to perfect our art and reaping the personal reward of publishing a well-written article.
How long will I continue to write? Time will tell, but I have no intentions of changing my current pace. While writing each day can be challenging, I enjoy it so much I see no end in sight for now.
A few interesting statistics about my 400 articles; I have penned more than 420,000 words with a Medium estimated reading time of 2,000 minutes or about 33 hours. Considering it took years to write my 50,000-word book, I am surprised I have now written more than the equivalent of 8 books in just over a year!
I want to encourage you to challenge yourself to write daily for a month and see what happens. Not only will you be providing something interesting and helpful or entertaining for others to read, but you can also create a change in who you are and who you are becoming, which is far more important than what you do! You can do more than you realize when you pour your heart into it.
I am still surprised my most read article is about a personal event in my life. I value each of the comments people left greatly. It is the shortest article I have written with only a two-minute read time. If you care to check it out, click the link below.
Discovering my legacy
For years I have sought a way to leave a mark on this earth after I am gone. I originally thought it would involve money and possibly my many journals if passed to family members. I now know my true legacy will be my writing, of which Medium is a part.
My heart’s desire has been to help other people grow for years, which is one reason I became an executive coach. I continue to coach in retirement, but instead of coaching executives, I work mostly with pastors in various churches. It is an honor to be welcomed into their world to serve them as I do.
In leaving this legacy of my writing, I hope and often pray that every article I publish will help someone become more and do more with their lives. I find no greater reward in life than serving others.
What’s next? My wife, an author who does some amazing work with several groups, and I are about to set up a small studio in our home. We each plan to extend the work we do of helping others to video and podcasts soon. Wish us luck!
Being retired, I am not writing or coaching for the money, but for the lives I hope to affect. One changed life makes it worth it to me. While I write a limited number of Christian articles, if one person comes to the Lord because of something I wrote, that will make my entire life worth living.
Closing words
Although I have yet to meet another writer on Medium in person, I feel as though I have gained some amazing friends in the past year. Rather than attempt to name them and forget someone, you know who you are. I owe a debt of gratitude to each of you. You have impacted my writing and influenced my desire to write greatly. I can’t express how much each one of you means to me, and I appreciate you so much!
A little over a year ago, I could have never guessed how much one small activity would turn into something so meaningful for my life. I appreciate everyone who has or will read my articles on Medium and elsewhere and look forward to continuing to read and learn from my fellow writers!
Keep on writing!
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Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION
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