The 3 Best Decisions I Made After Writing 450+ Articles

If you’re anything like me, you’ve likely racked up a large number of subscriptions that pop up in your inbox everyday.

You’ve most likely got an even larger number of them that have disappeared.

The truth is that most digital subscriptions don’t make it past 20 posts or so before burning out or giving up. On average, that’s about a month or so.

I recently blasted past 450 articles.

I’m finally beginning to understand why this kind of mental effort is important.

How I got here

A little over two years ago, I posted my first tweet announcing the beginning of this little experiment.

While it’s no longer out there since I torched that account, I archived it to my personal hard drive.

Here’s what it looked like:

I was out to build an audience based on what I believed to be valuable to others. I wanted to hone my writing voice. With my youngest child still in his infant stage, YouTube production was no longer a viable option. I was sleep-deprived, exhausted, and barely functioning. At 38, going through the process again was far, far worse than at 34. I completely understand why people have children in their 20s now.

I needed something more forgiving, more flexible, more versatile.

Turns out that growing an audience in another medium is just has hard.

As the months went by, I started to realize that it was more about refining your ideas and your ability to communicate them than chasing metrics and hacking for readership. The more I persisted in my efforts to pin down exactly what made me tick, the more I understood why I had burned out from the gaming channel genre.

I wanted to be more than just another middle-aged gamer.

I wanted to build a digital signature, a footprint, an heirloom.

It’s now been thirty months…ones that have been very different from the same amount of time building a YouTube channel.

Here are 3 of the best choices I’ve made so far…plus one mistake that I’m still making that will surprise you.

Surprise #1: Consistency > Clarity

I waited for decades to start writing because I thought I had to be someone to say something.

I thought that hitting 40 meant it was time (along with the reasons I mentioned earlier).

Starting on Twitter was probably the best thing for me because it gave me an easier minimum to reach.

Had I jumped in with a platform like Substack or Medium, I would’ve hit the writer’s block much harder as opposed to the writer’s hump on Twitter.

Tweets were short, to the point, and gave no room for fluff.

I just wrote what I thought and what I thought would be catchy.

As with all beginnings, I sucked eggs.

But I posted my ideas, half-baked, vague, and with a bit of an edge.

I did it over 23,000 times, choosing publishing it over perfection.

By the time I torched the account when Elon made it his personal megaphone, I knew who I was, where I was going with my writing, and the people I wanted to write for.

Clarity comes from consistency, not before it.

Surprise #2: Experimentation > Expertise

I started this newsletter 25 months ago.

It was mainly to expand on the ideas that were hitting from my Twitter account. If I’m being completely honest, it was also my attempt to start building an email list.

A few weeks ago, I hit the reset button on that because I realized it was time to let go of the people who weren’t really interested in watching me evolve.

The truth is that each article I wrote was an experiment.

I’ve been grateful for the support from everyone who signed up, even more so for the people who consistently read each issue.

Every few months, I made an effort to pivot based on what I discovered.

From mind mining to knowledge theorist to inspirator, and now the digital heirloom, I sharpened my skills, shared my lessons, and solved my problems (both personal and professional).

Through it all, I’ve come to understand the true nature of “failure”.

It’s not permanent. It’s a choice to allow it to define you.

Surprise #3: Life Experiences > Theoretical Ideology

As I expanded my ideas to Medium and Substack for wider distribution beyond the few dozen or so readers here, I got more perspective on which of my ideas resonated and which were ignored…

You’d think that as a performer and a professor that I would have known already.

People are more interested in your personal experience than what you read from a self-help book.

The stuff I wrote about that resonated the most and got the most responses were stories with lessons attached to them.

I made this mistake in my YouTube channel as well now that I think of it.

My best work came not from generalizations about strategies or topical summaries from books I had read, but from sharing moments about my family life, conversations with my coworkers, and lessons from pushing myself beyond my physical and mental limits.

Letting my personality be the hub rather than the spoke of my vehicle is far more effective than trying to be professional about the whole thing.

The One Mistake I’m Still Stuck On

Even after pushing myself through the daily publishing challenge from earlier this year, I’m still second-guessing my abilities.

• “Will people want to read this?”

• “Is it good enough that they’ll get what I’m trying to say?”

• “Does any of this stuff matter to the average person who’s struggling like me?”

It’s only been in the past month that I’ve started looking back.

You don’t realize how far you’ve come unless you take a moment (or have a family scare to slap you out of your hustle-and-grind mentality).

The thread of what I’m trying to say has always been there.

Everything I’ve been doing has always been enough.

Every post, every comment, ever article…they were produced with the ability I had at the time to express the same core concept because I was putting in the honest effort.

I’ve always been discussing identity, intentional action, and incremental improvements.

It was always enough. I just didn’t allow myself to execute with that mindset.

I’m finally fixing this mistake.

The way forward

If you’re a fellow writer or creator on the path to make something meaningful, which one of these lessons resonates well for you?

Hit reply and let me know. I read every response.

The Digital Heirloom is my repository of lessons, systems, and tools that forged me…not just for my kids, but for anyone chasing a legacy that exceeds trends, platforms, and memes.

At least once a week here, I share my journey of personal experimentation and lessons learned along the way. They reflect my progress in self-awareness, identity, and intentional improvement as a parent, creator, and aspiring polymath.

👉 Subscribe to follow the journey