You cannot afford to mentally tie your success on Medium to finances and to see payment as a reward. It doesn’t matter if you’re earning $10 or $50,000. Once you see the money as a reward rather than an unemotionally connected happenstance, you’re in trouble.

Because it is SO arbitrary, on my best months I earn 12 to 15 times as much as I do on my lean months…. And I do NOTHING differently. If I think of the good months as a reward, then the lean months become a punishment - and I get resentful, then I’d start cycling through previous behaviours which seemed to elicit a reward, when that doesn’t work - I’d sulk off. Doesn’t matter whether I’m Johnny TwoMinutesHere or Jessica Wildfire.

You show up. You write. You get what you’re given. As a very general rule, the AVERAGE of what you get goes up most years, that’s due to more residuals, more discoverable stories, and latent big hits helping you out.

I’ve been here 4 years and seen more burnouts than the average fire service. :o)