Toni Talks: The Second Time Around
Requiem On Medium
Building Blocks ➖OR ➖ Brick Barriers
Note: This post is for writers considering Medium their primary social media channel. It shares my holistic take on sustaining relationships.
Determining “how” you’re performing depends on a mix of perspective and expectation. What you see directly correlates to what you’re looking for. Ask yourself if what you see ahead are building blocks or brick barriers.
The ethos behind the statement above is mined from experience. I draw on the metaphor of my “real-world” union to explain a strategy to maintain a healthy relationship on Medium.
Summarily, my husband had planned our life together in our early 20’s. Spontaneity is not his thing. Living in the moment is mine. In fact, we’re polar opposites.
I’m an extrovert. He’s an introvert. I’m an optimist. He’s a pessimist. I’m short, round and smiley. He’s tall, lean and serious. I’m adept at art. He knows his way around numbers. Yet, our priorities are aligned.
Despite disparities our intersecting story has survived the test of time. We are deep into our third decade together simply because we established realistic expectations and articulated our perceptions of where each of us thought we were, in the relationship.
Meandering back to my opening statement, I view my relationship with Medium in similar terms. We both have different perspectives. To Medium’s credit, their leadership (clumsily) attempts to share their stance.
As a writer under, Medium’s umbrella, my challenge is setting a realistic expectation to navigate a path across the shifting sands of this platform, against the inherent danger of Medium’s erratic algorithm.
To this point, I’ve clearly defined my desired destination. I intend to reach it over the course of 10 years. For just a moment (in March) my perception was that I’d hit a brick barrier. But I was wrong. Medium is a platform made of building blocks, randomly scattered far and wide.
Therefore my objective is to incrementally connect and build a structure of writers who are alternately readers. Visualizing this idea is the impetus to move forward, stay on track, and one step ahead of algorithmic changes.
In a nutshell, my commitment is to consistently construct a structure that welcomes and nurtures readers. To write when words come and offer value with every interaction. Moreover, to express gratitude for payments gained while remaining proactively engaged in an enjoyable task.
In the immortal words of Meryl Streep… “That’s All!”
