How to Win Everything This Year

I took the last two weeks of the year off from writing. Frankly, it was nice and provided a level of restoration I needed to move into 2022.

Instead of following suit, it seems like everyone and their cousin took that time to write “how to win (insert literally anything here).” I saw tweets about winning at Medium, crushing YouTube, mastering TikTok. If it’s a platform where you can create, I saw a link to some bloated think piece about it.

Do you know what I realized during my two weeks without writing? All those gimmicks and hacks and growth metrics suck. They take something exciting and raw, like creating art, and turn it into a game to win. And what happens if you don’t win? Well, you’re clearly a loser.

Do you want to know the secret to winning everything this year? Create things that make you happy. That’s all there is to it.

We lose sight of the art when we put all of our time and effort into winning a platform, growing our following, or beating the algorithm. We spend all of our time chasing something fleeting at best.

Granted, I am writing this from a position of privilege with over 30k Medium followers. Feel free to look at me with all the skepticism in the world, but know that those “people” don’t translate into platform success. Most things I publish bomb, with the smallest percentage of followers ever seeing what I write.

I don’t write this to discourage you. I also don’t write this to invite pity. Instead, I write this to say we should all return to focus on creating. We get too wrapped up in the outcome, the end goal, the hypothetical future where we’ve all made it big.

Do you want to know how to win everything this year? Focus on creating things that make you proud. That’s it. There is no deep secret or gimmick to follow. Create what is true to you and share that with the world.

That’s what I’ll be doing throughout 2022 with my public writing and in my newsletter. I hope you’ll join me by sharing how you plan to win everything this year. Remember, I’m treating this as a letter and would love for you to write back. Let’s start a conversation.

Happy New Year, and may you find creative fulfillment throughout 2022.