Start Now: Why I Wish I’d Started Sooner

On January 1st, I decided I was going to commit to myself. To my goals, my dreams, my aspirations. That I wanted to do something that mattered to me, and I was going to chase what I wanted to, no matter what anyone thought about it.

What does “start now” even mean?

Since 2013, I’ve been trying, to start a writing career. I wanted to review books, talk about my writing, build a small following on social media so that when I published my work, there’d be an audience. And I tried:

• I wrote paid and unpaid articles for online blogs, news outlets, and e-magazines, driving content through my social media.
• I picked up writing jobs via Twitter to build up freelance work, from beta and sensitivity reading to writing book reviews.
• I started and stopped a Youtube channel, making videos about the books I read.
• I started this blog, where I posted about my writing and passions and productivity.

I did all of this between 2013 and 2020, and was moderately successful(You can read more about my contemplation on all of this in my post “She’s a Writer”). I wasn’t focused, I didn’t post every day, but I was putting in a modicum of effort and was getting results. But a lack of consistency meant that I also wasn’t living in a feedback loop. I’d get busy and not write a blog post that week, and one missed post led to six. Someone found my in person on my Youtube channel, and I got so freaked out that I stopped posting. I dove into volunteering and working and running myself full speed ahead toward…something.

And this isn’t to say I abandoned the dream. I always figured I’d have time to build an audience, to chase the dream, to seek what I wanted to. Until one day I had turned 30, and I’d hit every metric I was supposed to, except for the ones I was excited for.

So on January 1st this year, I decided I wanted to run full steam ahead at the thing I wanted. What exactly was that? I wanted to create content about books and reading that I enjoyed consuming, and build an audience of readers who were invested in me and what I produced. Whether that audience meant that one day I would have people to share news with, I don’t know. But I want to share my love of reading and writing, and so I’ve put in the effort.

• I’m consistently reading a wide range of books in genre’s that matter to me, so that I have something to post about.
• I’m creating graphics in canva, so that I have content to share.
• I’m consistently interacting with and engaging on Threads.
• I’ve posted a Youtube video every Wednesday.
• I’ve posted a blogpost every Friday.

And this has made me so incredibly happy. I am treating these projects like hobbies, but I’m taking them seriously because if I don’t, I won’t invest in them.

I’ve invested time, energy, and effort into content creation this year, and it has made me oh so happy. Two months in, I don’t even care that I’ve grown by a whole 400 collective followers across platforms and made 3 cents in ad revenue from my blog. It’s a value ad to my life because I have something I’m investing in and calling mine.

If I have advice to give from the last 12 years, is that the best time to be consistent and start is when you start getting excited about something. Who knows where I’d be or what I’d be doing if I’d run hard for whatever dream I was chasing back then. But it’s okay that I didn’t do that then, because I’m doing it now, and I’m so excited that you are along for the ride.

That is all for today. If you would like to support my work and buy me a ko-fi, click here. Otherwise, I’ll see you next week!

-M