Accept 1 harsh truth if you want to make huge money writing online

I was driving to the office early in the morning the other day when I suddenly lost my cool.

A local clown made a series of poor decisions that caused me to miss a very long light, thus extending a commute I already didn’t want to make.

On my better days, I wouldn’t even notice such an offensive display of motor vehicle operation.

But in this case, my colorful descriptions of my fellow motorist were so toxic they melted the interior of my Honda.

Here’s the thing, though.

I wasn’t really mad at him.

I was mad at me.

The deeper I get into my creator journey and my Publish Every Day project — an experiment to see if I can leave commuter life behind within a year by publishing on different platforms every single day and investing my earnings — the more resentment I feel toward the life I want to leave behind.

Did I want to freeze my butt off outside, be in the car at 6:15 a.m., driving in traffic, or sitting in an office for eight hours?

Of course not!

But in that moment, it suddenly dawned on me again: It’s all my fault.

My decisions led me to a place I didn’t want to be. My decisions alone.

Most people can’t admit this harsh truth, and if you’re one of the people who can’t, I’m willing to bet you’ll never make it as an online writer or any other kind of entrepreneur.

Let me tell you about some of the bad decisions that led me to raging in the car that morning.

We all want to be free, happy, content online writers, don’t we? Well, there’s one harsh truth you’re going to have to accept if you want to make it. (Licensed by the author under the Unsplash+ License)

The hard path, untaken

I tried so many times to become an entrepreneur.

I launched so many websites that ultimately died on the table because I didn’t have the drive to get through the tough early stages, which feature a lot of work and not a lot of money.

• I decided to quit before any of my projects had enough time to get off the ground because it was too hard.

• Then I decided to get kind of drunk every night for more than a decade, leaving me sad, tired, and unmotivated.

• And then I would cry about not having enough “time” or “energy” to accomplish my goals.

Yeah right, buddy. Frickin’ liar.

In fact, as I wrote recently, pretty much anyone who says they don’t have “time” to achieve their goals is a liar.

What if, instead of making excuses, you actually took the time to consider what decisions led to you failing? Or not having enough “time”?

And then what if you made some new decisions?

Misplaced anger

So what was I really mad about the other day?

My earnings have been a little stagnant lately (you can find an update below), and I think one of the main reasons is that I haven’t been pushing hard enough in two areas:

1. Developing my YouTube channel — after a big post-monetization push, I’ve only published two videos in the last month

2. Creating digital products, including an audiobook and a course I’ve been planning

And whose fault is that?

Mine! Nobody else’s!

And certainly not that poor schlub in the other car whose driving skill suggests a general obliviousness to his surroundings, let alone my feelings toward him.

The anger, the resentment … it’s a distraction.

You can have a little pity party, but what does that really accomplish?

It clouds your thinking and your vision.

It pushes you toward the kind of bad decisions that delayed my progress toward legitimate entrepreneurship — stuff like drinking alcohol and watching TV instead of developing my websites.

You’re in charge

If you’re unhappy with your life, don’t hide from it.

Make the decision to OWN it.

This can be difficult, but it’s also very freeing in a way.

Once you accept radical accountability for everything in your life, you can set about fixing it in a healthy way.

Yeah, maybe you have obstacles.

We all do.

I’m an ADHD weirdo who battled alcoholism for 15 years and watched my family break apart as a teenager.

And I know a lot of people who’ve had it a lot tougher than me and still managed to accomplish great things.

We all have moments of weakness. That’s fine.

My silly fit in the car, the pity parties I occasionally throw when my level of success doesn’t match my expectations … they’ll never go away completely.

But I’m definitely getting better at acknowledging and containing them.

You see, the “woe is me” thing can be all-consuming if you let it run wild.

So best to feel it and then nip it in the bud the way I just did by writing this story.

The sooner you get back to the truth that you’re the one who’s actually in charge of what happens in your life, the sooner you can get the train back on the tracks and continue on to your preferred destination.

Publish Every Day project update: Day 74

I’m experimenting to see if I can make enough money to leave commuter life within a year by publishing every day on various platforms and putting my earnings into passive income investments.

How much I need to retire: $250 CAD per day

What I earned on Day 74: $36.43 (writing) + $0.56 (YouTube) = $36.99 total

Publish Every Day project total earnings on Day 74.

Publish Every Day project, Day 74 (earnings by day).

What I’ve published the past 2 days:

• This post about my 4 favorite exercises to stay lean and fit at 42

• This YouTube video about the only 5 AI stocks I’m buying in 2024:

Looking for something else to read? Here are my top 5 trending stories at the moment:

1. 1 fitness trap Ryan Reynolds overcomes to stay super jacked at 47

2. 1 reason you’ll succeed (or fail) making big money writing online

3. The real truth of making big money writing online (they’re lying)

4. One NEW reason I’m hyper-motivated to change my life writing online

5. Do 1 thing now before the scary 2024 recession takes your job (NEW)