Effort matters more than excellence. Here's why.
Why not giving up puts you in the top 10%
Hi!
How are you?
Today I interrupt your Saturday morning, to share a lesson that I think you might want to hear. It’s an important lesson for the over-achievers, those with always more on their to-do list than hours in the day, and those with too many creatives ideas. It’s a lesson I had in why persistence matters, why reading data correctly matters, and why you *are* doing enough - even if it doesn’t feel like it.
Like many other people, you probably opened up your Spotify Unwrapped data to find you listened to more Taylor Swift than you thought - or to find you were more into the Pop genre than you like to admit. I got my Unwrapped too (too embarrassing to share) - but I also got my podcaster statistics for The Out of Hours podcast .
For context, I only released one season of Out of Hours this year - that's just 9 episodes.
When I opened ‘Unwrapped’ - I found out those 9 episodes of the show were heard in 39 countries, and it was in the top 10% shared podcasts globally.
Great news! I originally thought. I had been wondering whether people cared, and if I should keep going, so this was nice news to hear.
...But this wasn't quite the whole story.
You see, most podcasters only make a couple of episodes before throwing in the towel. So that makes the total global pool much smaller.
50% of podcasts are abandoned after a few episodes, so being in the top 10% shared actually means something quite different when you remove the inactive podcasts (not sure what Spotify includes, but you get the gist).
The amazing lesson for me was how important it is to simply keep going. It was a reminder that in order to be in the top 10% you don't have to have to be the best in the world, or produce the most stuff, you just need to keep showing up every year.
Even if it's just your equivalent of 9 episodes.
If you have a creative idea, or if you're running a business, or even doing a hobby, and you're being hard on yourself - remember to look back. While you're busy comparing yourself to all the people doing better than you, or berating yourself for not doing more, remember there are many, many more who just stopped doing it.
The next season of the Out of Hours Podcast will be out in January! Subscribe here.
Great reminder, Georgia. I have definitely been on the giving up side a couple of times with a few creative projects. Consistency is key in everything we do.