It happened to me

Illumination Brought Me Wrestling, Synchronicity, and Stats

What I learned from Illumination, Medium, and life recently

My resolution still stands strong. I’ll regularly write a post about my journey with Illumination writers and many others in my web of life.

At this moment, my life is dynamic, so after last Friday, here’s the new one already. Before I knew it, this story was filled to the brim with yummy content. So let’s get it out there for you to enjoy.

The more I receive your honest reactions, the more I want to share my journey with you. So what happened recently in my writer’s slash work slash personal life?

I read stories by Karen Madej 💛, Sherry McGuinn, Paul Myers MBA, KeepingItRealWithAnnick, Kristen Abram, Christine Graves, Rasheed Hooda, Eliot Kersgaard, Pamela J. Nikodem, MS, Ashish Juneja, Livia Dabs, Diogenes, CJ Kowalski, Jessica Alfaqih, Farrukh Jamal, Greg Lawlor, T H Wong, MaryRose Denton, Emmanuel Prado, MWMcCabe, Chrissie Morris Brady Ph.D., Jordan Gross, Timothy Key, Mike Schoenhofer, Julien Mauduit, Bill Abbate, Rick Dobson, Madoc Maduka, Alvin Ang, Erwin Lima, Misa Ferreira de Rezende, Ksenia Sein, Amy Marley, and Henery X (long).

How did I read so many? Every day, I just open one of the stories from Dr Mehmet Yildiz featuring all the writers. I read, clap and respond with gratitude and honesty. And I enjoy myself! Reading for a short time or linger longer. Laughing out loud sometimes. And learning a lot.

Keep writing, my friends. I’ll be your audience for sure!

This one resonated with me and it inspired me to write a longer comment about imposter syndrome, being a generalist and showing up for real. Thanks, Christine Graves, for making me think back to the times when I started my professional career and even felt awkward picking up the phone. “What would I say?”

The next one is an article that I didn’t understand completely. But I liked it for its value anyway. It’s full of really clear explanations on how to set up a Sandbox and play with code.

I know there are many people out there who’d love this tutorial. Like my nephews. They love coding. So, I’m glad you are writing this, MWMcCabe. Thanks from my nephews…

And then this story about a woman wrestler. Never knew I would get fascinated by a wrestler, but this story triggered my imagination. Thanks, Timothy Key!

This story by Henery X (long) is a must-read because it’s poetry in action. We need hope these days, we also need action. Henery X gives it to us.

This is what I wrote in the comments: “In one word: GREAT! You give an example of how one tiny action (a tweet) can unleash collaboration and creativity. We need hope in the world right now. Keep on giving hope and action to all of us with your projects. All of us, close and far away…”

This week I received many opportunities from people who read my stories or saw my posts on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. I never know these days what exactly triggers people to contact me. But I’m feeling blessed that they do.

So I just keep posting intuitively without any thought about consistency, personal branding, too much posting or too little. I just go with the flow. Write what I feel like writing, share and be involved in conversations. It works best for me this way.

These are some of the opportunities emerging lately:

• I received a request to join a team that builds regenerative houses around the world. Wow, yes! Let’s explore…
• Anneke Witte-van den Broek (I don’t know her in person, yet) mentioned my name on LinkedIn to a team of the Digital Storytelling Lab of Columbia University. They are visualizing the future. Wow, great! I’ll be invited for the brainstorm soon…
• A young woman from the USA skyped with me. She thinks my words should be on video so more people can take notice. I’m thinking about it. Feeling uncomfortable. I’m a writer, a bit shy when it comes to showing my true colors without masks. Who knows…
• One of my influential changemaker friends thinks I should write a book. Combining my articles with a good thread so it can motivate people from thought into action. Thinking about that one as well. Secretly making a document with the possible content of such a book. Who knows…

Do you see? For me, all this sharing means a chance at synchronicity. Not just serendipity…

I learned a few lessons about synchronicity in these past few years:

• It starts with making movement
• Giving comes first. Receiving comes later and often from unexpected sides
• Paying attention is important
• It can become overwhelming. So I need to make strong choices about what to pursue and what not. Always going back to my center. Otherwise, I will end up pleasing others. Doing what THEY think is important whereas it’s MY life…
• And my motto is: “I don’t pull on dead horses.” If I make movement and there’s no reaction from my networks, then the time isn’t right yet. I’ll do something else first.

Well, here’s a new story emerging… I don’t think it’s a priority for me, though. So many other stories are swimming in my grey cells.

Maybe one of you wants to take up the challenge and write some wise words on synchronicity? I know e.g. that Rasheed Hooda has it on his mind and already writes beautifully about it. So perhaps others feel the urge to join in? Tag me, and I’ll be reminded to read your stories.

Illumination and Dr Mehmet Yildiz are putting the spotlight on stories to give us exposure out in the world. My stats-story was in the spotlight on April 9. It was shared by several of my newly found Illumination-friends on LinkedIn and other platforms. This is the story I’m talking about.

Let me share some follow up. On April 12, stats for this story were 148 views, 70 reads, 47% read ratio, and 31 fans. To complete the picture for you, here are the earnings.

My personal conclusions are that Illumination readers are real readers. They taste words apparently... Average reading time is high, compared to my other stories.

One more analysis with stats now that we’re talking about it, and it apparently interests so many of you.

It might give you some motivation to have a look at your stats too. Don’t get obsessed with them, though. Just watch, draw some conclusions, enjoy and forget about them again…

The writing and enjoying are what really matters!

My highest ever view day was on Feb 24, 2020. One day with 1364 views. A time before Illumination. This is my stats graph for that month.

So I wondered why? What did I write that day that gave me so many views? This is the story I wrote and promoted that day.

Checking stats, I found out this story had 187 views on Feb 24. So that can’t be it. There must have been something else. I looked further and found this one.

I wrote it on Feb 13 but apparently promoted it that day via LinkedIn, which is my most active social network. On Feb 24, it had 861 views.

Yesssss, I found the culprit! Here are the views of that story.

As you can see, lots of impact in one day. Many viewers. Many reads. Mostly external.

For the people interested in big money, this story is a complete failure, though. Medium-members gave it only 45 seconds of their time.

For me, however, it’s a great result! Judging by the reactions I received on LinkedIn, people in my networks liked it a lot. These readers don’t count for reading time or earnings on Medium, because I gave them a friends-link.

They never clap, they don’t know Medium that well. No problem. This story got them thinking. So this story definitely made an impact and I’m happy!

Well, my friends, you might have learned a little more about the practical sides of my work and play now.

For me, it isn’t about earning money on Medium. If we want to make a right-livelihood for ourselves, we can use many puzzle pieces together to earn the income we need.

And if you want to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook or somewhere in our food forest. My hands in the healthy, living soil…

Further reading

This is my bestselling article so far. It will definitely be in the book I aim to write one day:

Or maybe I’ll stick with fiction. Hmmm… don’t know yet…