Reflections on my first year on Medium

For long years I’ve yearned to write. To create, more than I consume. 2019 was the year that happened.

In an age where Silicon Valley types design ever more clever ways to grab and keep my attention on things like facebook and Quora; as well as the general distractions in life of being a working dad — it was difficult to overcome the inertia and put pen to paper for the first time.

I wanted to write for a few major reasons:

• To better formalise, structure and document my thoughts
• To share my message more broadly, beyond a handful of my like-minded friends — on the rare occasions that our busy lives permitted us to catch up
• Get used to putting my thoughts out there — in the wild, and be able to take the flack from haters
• To change the world. To help influence the zeitgeist one person and subject at a time. To educate, or shed light around a topic

I dreamed of writing regularly, building up an audience, and maybe even earning a buck or two along the way.

And so, at the dawn of 2019, I made a pledge. This was the year. This was the year I was going to become a writer.