No matter how long you’ve been writing here — I’ll bet you’ve noticed a lot of changes happening at Medium lately. The most notable is Medium Founder Ev Williams passing the CEO’s job to Tony Stubblebine. Many writers say their views are down. We’ve all seen a different home page. And curation got kicked to the curb. There are…

Stop shooting yourself in the foot. — Do you ever have one of those mornings when you wake up and wonder why you write? You just checked your stats, and your views are down. You hope to make it into the $100 club but it seems so out of reach when you made $18.27 last month. It’s…

Are you sabotaging your success by believing any of these lies? — Fred Smith, Sr. said this years ago: Fantasy’s function is to change reality. What is your dream? What do you wish that your future would look like? Dreams are healthy when they stretch us. When they are so far from reality they can never come true, dreams can devastate us. …

Setting new rules for success on the side — I first learned about hustle culture from the book Crushing It by Gary Vaynerchuk. As I read it, I thought, “Man, I’m going to have to spend every moment outside work to get all this done.” I got tired just thinking about it. If you have a ton of time…

Know when to give up and when to press on — Writing can be a really long game. We spend a lot of time guessing what people want to read about. One tactic is to see where people already spend time. The theory is if a topic is popular, we can draw some of that traffic to our own work. It…

And how to change it if you want — I’ll bet you’ve had this conversation every time you go somewhere. “Hi, how are you?” “I’m good. You?” “I’m good.” Usually, the conversation ends there. If you’re lucky, you might get to talk about something as exciting as the weather. Other topics might include: Bragging about your achievements Talking about…

What communication was like before everyone had computers — Every summer when I was a kid — and even into college — I wrote letters to a select handful of people. I wrote regularly to my grandmother and my aunt for a while. I wrote to friends on mission trips and those who moved away to go to school. Long distance calls were expensive as crap! Paper and stamps were super cheap in comparison. I usually wrote once a week to…

Find fulfillment in being who you are — I spent most of my childhood feeling alone. I didn’t fit in at school. I wore thick glasses. I liked to read. And I sucked at sports. I kept to myself, suffering in silence. I assumed no one cared, but I never gave anyone a chance to try. I felt…

Stop waiting and start writing! — Have you ever put off writing because: You haven’t done enough research Your work isn’t polished enough for publication You’re afraid people won’t like it (or no one will care) I know exactly how you feel. It’s been months since I’ve published here on Medium. It’s not that I haven’t…