When you venture out to do your own thing, it's easy to get distracted by a lot of things, namely what I like to call vain-as-fuck results.
These are the millions of views.
The thousands of shares.
The millions of subscribers.
The six-figures paycheck.
And they supposedly come overnight.
You can thank social media and all the bullshitters out there for this.
It's thus easy to feel demoralized when you don't see any visible results, especially at the start.
I felt this way not just when I started out over a decade ago, but pretty much everyday along the way.
I was obsessed by the vanity metrics.
I thought I sucked because I didn't have the numbers.
I felt like I wasn't progressing at all and that it was pointless to even continue.
Then every once in a while, I'd get a message like this:
It made me feel good of course, but alas, I am somewhat ashamed to admit I'd eventually brush these aside and get distracted again.
Perhaps this is a neverending battle.
But only if you want it to be.
Try your best to not get distracted. Don't do it so you can be vain-as-fuck.
Remember that your work matters and you're impacting people in ways you can't see.