What I’ve Learned Blogging for 6 Months Every Single Day

My honest journey and key lessons learned

Photo by Elijah Hail on Unsplash

Today is a big day for me. Exactly six months ago, I wrote and published my first article on Medium. I had 11 followers back then, four of whom were family members. To understand why it’s a big moment, you need a little context.

On October 2, 2019, I was sitting in a coffee shop in central London and staring at the Medium editor. It was only me, the blinking cursor, and an encouraging “Tell your story…” Having just moved from Russia, I had no money, no prospects, nothing. Nobody knew me in this new big city, and I had no idea what I was going to do next.

I tried applying for marketing positions at several agencies. I didn’t even know how to fill up a resume properly, I was the one checking resumes just a couple of months ago. The day before, I’d had dinner with my girlfriend, who goes to a prestigious university in London, when I just burst into tears. I told her I thought of myself as a loser, a disappointment. I told her I didn’t know whether I could keep going. She looked at me then and said, “Well, what do you want to do? Besides making money.” I was shocked by the question. Money was the only thing on my mind because I had none. But I closed my mind and tried hard to imagine what I’d be doing if I didn’t have to worry about money. “Write,” I said finally. “Then write,” I heard her reply. “We’ll be fine.”

So, there I was, sitting in front of a computer, trying to let go of the money problems. I was trying to come up with something to write just to forget about it all. But hadn’t written anything in English before, I felt scared.

I read some posts by Tim Denning and learned that you could make money writing on Medium. “I like this Aussie guy. If he can do it, maybe I can do it too,” I thought to myself. And then I remembered my old friend: the “six-month-rule.” I used it every time I came up with a new project in my old marketing business. It’s simple: if you start something, stick to it for six months without thinking, judging yourself, or quitting.

The biggest obstacle to getting marketing, and all other, projects done is not the environment, the audience, or the perpetual lack of budget, it’s quitting too early.

So, I told myself: “No matter what happens, I’ll write and publish one piece each day for six months.” I wrote the date down in my Moleskine: April 3, 2020. Which, as it happens, is also my birthday. And it’s also the date when this post will be published.