The Power of Small Wins

Last month I made over $1.50 from writing articles on Medium. Yes, you read that correctly. This money, after taxes, can barely buy me a bottle of water. But I’m celebrating nonetheless because it’s not about the money, it’s about what it represents.

I teach my coaching clients to celebrate the small wins. Sometimes they are resistant to the idea. Some clients think we are celebrating mediocrity, but that’s not what we are doing. We are building a muscle. The muscle to recognize progress and celebrate progress. These two steps are important if we want to be successful and happy. If we don’t recognize progress we will miss an opportunity to learn. If we don’t celebrate our progress, we become more susceptible to negative feelings and events.

When I started writing articles 6 months ago, I was told this was part of a long-term strategy to establish oneself as an expert. I was told that if I consistently wrote for over a year, I MIGHT start to see the fruits of that labor. Rarely do people continue to put effort into something that doesn’t produce immediate results. But as a Coach, I am burdened with having to practice what I preach. I know in theory that investing in consistent writing is likely to yield positive results in the long term. Additionally, I believe it will establish me as the expert I am, raise my profile, and help me improve my writing. However, when your time is limited and there are many different priorities and paths you can take, it can be difficult to invest in a longer term play. This is why being vigilant about recognizing small wins is important.

For the first 3 months my focus was on re-teaching myself how to write and to develop good habits around writing. With each article I learned a bit more about how to come up with topic ideas, how to break the writing process down into parts, and where and how to publish my articles. I was getting less than 50 views on most of my articles. The views I did receive were primarily from my own network, as I shared the content on my social media channels.

But one day something changed. I published an article about how I had navigated changing careers 5 times in 15 years and what I had learned from it. This article didn’t receive 50 views, it received more like 150 views to start. Additionally, it received even more attention in the LinkedIn post I created to share the article. If I was too focused on top-line goals and not progress, I would have overlooked this success. I mean, I recognize that 150-200 views of an article on Medium means nothing to real writers. However, to a person starting out, it meant I had stumbled upon something and I should look for clues as to what to do next.

At this point, I had been writing for almost 4 months and had only made about $0.30 per month from my writing. While making money for my writing was not the point, it was still a benchmark I could use to measure process. I figured if there was a chance I could have an article that blew up, I might as well collect some money from that exposure. I also learned that Medium editors could decide to redistribute or promote your posts, which is how you will reach a wider audience. However, I was starting to think that this was a myth or something that happened to only the top 1% of legitimate, full-time writers. But my habit of recognizing small wins encouraged me to keep going because clearly I was on to something with my career change article.

So I continued and published two other articles that didn’t receive as much attention. However, I had a hypothesis that what differentiated my career change article was the more personal approach I took with that story. Since I had identified progress, I was able to start to form hypotheses about how to capitalize on that progress and propel myself forward. It’s like a little clue that tells you to keep going. This led me to write an article inspired by my experience with microaggressions as a mixed race person. You see, I had an idea for a story where I could share some deeply personal experiences, but I wasn’t sure I should take that approach. However, now that I had formed a hypothesis around more personal content, it encouraged me to give it a try. At this point my normal audience reach was small so I wouldn’t be embarrassing myself in front of that many people if it wasn’t a success.

I published my article on microaggressions on a Wednesday afternoon and decided I wouldn’t bother to promote it on social media until the following week. However, a few hours later I received an email from Medium saying their curators had seen my article and were going to promote it in their “Race” section of the site. It finally happened! I was so unbelievably excited (and surprised). At this point, I honestly was starting to believe this was never going to happen and that there must be some secret way to connect with the editors to get your article noticed. And for it to happen with an article that I didn’t even think anyone would bother to read was even sweeter. 

The small wins kept coming with this article. It was the first time a stranger (e.g. someone who isn’t related to me) had commented on one of my articles. The editor of a small publication on Medium reached out to ask if I was interested in republishing on their publication. I received “claps” for my article. And more than that, people were sharing with me their own experiences with microaggressions. This interest then led to not just views from my network, but from actual Medium readers. And that is why for the first time I was able to generate over $1.50 in revenue from my articles in August.

No, I can’t buy anything in NYC with $1.50 aside from maybe a bottle of water from a street vendor (unless it's a hot day and they jack up the price to $2). Looking for a big win would have left me feeling unfulfilled. But recognizing the small win enabled me to see that I made 500% more money in August than in prior months. Furthermore, what I thought was impossible now becomes something within reach. It represents progress and a reward for putting in the effort.

So what happens after you experience a small win? You keep going and even double down in some areas. I published two more articles after the microaggression article. The second article on Manager Training was also picked up by Mediums curators. Then a week later, I received notice that the prior article I published a week earlier on a group dynamic framework called GRPI was also being redistributed. Furthermore, one of the largest publications on Medium reached out to ask if they could republish the article and to add me as a Contributor. These were more firsts, built on the backs of an initial small win. 

There’s one more aspect that celebrating small wins can help with and that is combating negative feelings and events. Aristotle once said, “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” 2020 has been a rough year for many of us, myself included. Being able to identify and appreciate a small win can help you ride out an otherwise tough situation. A small win is the light illuminating a path forward instead of leaving us stranded in the darkness.

By embracing a growth mindset I am able to focus my attention on what I do have at my disposal, instead of what I don’t have or the goals I haven’t achieved. No, I have not made real money from publishing articles on Medium. But by not tying myself to that goal I was able to see there was more value to these articles than the money from Medium. It brought exposure and engagement and future opportunity. And by those measures, I am doing just fine. And each week as I wrap up my work on Friday, I write down my 3 biggest wins from the week. These wins mean I start my weekend thinking about the positive, rather than the negative. Mindset matters. Celebrating small wins helps us build the muscle for positive thinking. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does start to make a difference within a few weeks of implementing the practice. Remember, even small progress is progress.

Now let’s see if I can make $2.00 this month and buy myself a water AND a street pretzel!

If you want to incorporate celebrating small wins into your routine, I’m offering free access to my digital Daily Planner which will help you organize your day, practice gratitude, and track your wins. Go ahead and download a free copy to help you embrace these lessons.