16. Leave something good when you’re gone

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in” - Greek Proverb

I was listening to a talk at Church on Sunday and it challenged me deeply as I found myself looking to my life and realising I was having somewhat selfish motivations behind my actions.

Doing things for my glory, to get money, and ultimately to show off.

But guess what, that won’t last.

The mindset has to be shifted to helping others and the next generation.

Why; because one, it is the good thing to do, two, it changes us in the process.

Our heart perspective is moved through the selfless service of others.

There are three things to consider when thinking about the future:

1. Vision- what is our idea, what do we called to? This may not come to fruition in our lifetime but we have to be okay with that and make the actionable steps to build on this vision.

2. Opportunity- we need to actually use the time and opportunity we have. Work the skills we have acquired. Teach and pass on. That leaves a message way beyond you as an individual.

3. Resources- using finances well. Give willingly, serve your purpose, recognise that it’s all finite so plant seeds for others now.

In an immediacy culture, it’s very hard to often think long-term and delay gratification. Dream about what you can do with the time you are blessed with, and the legacy you can leave behind- don’t stop till you get there. There’s nothing stopping you!

15. Earning $40+ in my first month on Vocal Media

Being relatively new to my blogging journey I didn’t know what to expect, however, what I did know was to be successful I couldn’t rely on any algorithms and I couldn’t put all my eggs in one basket.

Doing some research I wanted to do at least 3 outlets of writing, beyond that it would become too much work. So I started out writing on my own blog, then Medium, followed by Vocal Media- I’ve come to appreciate all the different quirks and charms with each.

Vocal Media is interesting as it is a relatively new platform compared to many others and you honestly won’t make money by getting views (or it will be a very small chunk), in one month I only received around $1. The exciting thing, however, is the rewards the platform gives you.

I believe that only writing on one platform is heavily hindering your chances of a hitting success, simply due to the complexity of these algorithms. So I, in my high IQ ways, simply reposted all my articles. Some of the stories that did well on Vocal Media did terrible on Medium, and the same could be said the other way.

I personally write and publish stories every day and I got 3 top stories in the space of 5 days equating to $15 of revenue.

To me, this is quite a success.

You may be wondering what a top story is, and to be frank with you I don’t really know myself. However, Vocal Media goes through a proofreading stage when you submit your posts. I believe it is this team that can decide whether work can get additional views/ become a top story. This is great as that means that with consistency, quality work will be rewarded. Whereas I’ve found Medium can sometimes be hit and miss unless I want to rely on publications and spend a while networking with other writers.

I also got rewarded for my 5th and 10th article- $5 and $10. I think this is brilliant as encourages the thing which matters- writing, instead of stupid stats.

Upon my 20th daily upload, I got gifted a 3-month premium membership to Vocal Media by the platform itself for free. This in turn rewarded me an additional $10.

I don’t know if this is the norm, or whether the platform just really likes my content. But I’m definitely going to continue posting there.

Another bonus I found is that unlike other platforms like Medium, it takes hardly any work or maintenance. I upload a post and forget about it. I haven’t read any of other people's work, I haven’t had to comment or try and amass a following- I’ve simply posted consistently.

To some, it might be negative that the website seems less community focussed. The website doesn’t have that much charm, finding and reading the content you like is quite hard and they have a unique way of tagging and posting content. But for someone who just wants to publish content and doesn’t care about the faff of other things you can’t beat it.

All my stories aren’t originals nor are they optimised to the site. I literally reposted them from Medium or my own blog and that’s the way I’ll continue to work. Writing and content creation these days is often too hellbent on trying to serve the will of the corporations who own the platforms. At the end of the day, I just want to write and get better at writing.

So a month in and Vocal Media has been a great little tool and encouragement whilst requiring little to no work. If you don’t write on it yet, I highly recommend you do.

14. The motivation myth

Motivation is often a big talking point these days. I’m sure you may get the image of an angry sports coach screaming at his players to fire them up.

Even if you’ve never experienced the motivational speaker talks we can see self-help, encouragement, and tips negating unproductivity is an increasingly popular topic these days.

People want to know how to get over the slump in their lives and achieve more. However, this is where the conventional idea of motivation leading to achievement is flawed.

If we wait around for light bulb moments we can remain stagnant for who knows how long.

So why do people do it?

Because it provides an excuse.

“I have writer's block, I don’t have any ideas, I lack motivation”

This is all rubbish. We want to justify why we aren’t progressing in whatever field we are in. In addition to this we watch motivational videos and read productivity books to make us feel like we are doing something, yet, we are deceiving ourselves.

Waiting around isn’t the answer.

Upon reading Jeff Haden’s ‘The Motivation Myth’, my key takeaway was this new approach to gaining momentum. He suggests that successful people and organisations ignore the classical notion of lightning strike motivation being a requirement to bring about achievement, instead, they follow the cycle:

1. Small success

2. Some motivation

3. More success

4. More motivation

Then repeat.

It’s not sexy, nor does is it include hacks or tips and tricks. You just need to have action.

This is where the quote; ‘Start before you’re ready’ by Steven Pressfield, becomes very helpful.

You should be constantly making sure to generate small successes early and on somewhat of a regular basis to keep a continuation of motivation.

When the recognition that motivation does not simply come to you but rather you make it, you can begin to find that motivation can be quite predictable.

The word ‘success’ seems intimidating to many, yet, can be simplified to doing the right things, the right way, over and over. And on a small scale, this is incredibly doable.

I’m personally a massive fan of early mornings and good routines exactly due to this. I wake up and get a ‘small win’ of sorts. That could be doing my bed, reading, doing some writing, or something with a quite low resistance to starting.

Upon completion of the said task, I feel almost bad for not doing anything on that same ‘success’. For example, if I write blogs for an hour or two I find it stimulates my brain and compels me to do some reading, research, or even do other work that has a decent chunk of resistance normally.

It is the momentum.

And don’t get me wrong it doesn’t always act that way. Some days I wake up so motivated that I change around my small routines to attack high resistance items. In these moments I keep going until I sense a dwindle and then use the ‘small successes’ such as daily routines to top me up.

Hence the need for productive breaks and good forms of rest that keep you in the flow state.

Ultimately, the main takeaway should be that you have more autonomy over motivation than you think. It’s not something that can be externally screamed to you nor relied upon to hit you at any given state- it’s a muscle you have to train.

• Start with the small successes, accessible easily in daily repeatable habits.

• Gain motivation and use it for bigger projects.

• Work on these larger works to get more success and motivation, then retreat to small successes to replenish you.

Remove the paralysing perfectionism and need for something amazing to happen to you externally. Put your head down and do the work. Motivation will come.