How to Stop Being Obsessed With Getting Curated
Not being curated doesn’t define you.
In my first couple of months on Medium, I was obsessed with getting curated — as I’m sure a lot of beginners are.
I’d check my email or notifications to see if Medium curators had chosen to distribute my article every ten minutes. Whenever a piece wasn’t accepted, I’d feel discouraged and disappointed in myself.
I’d groan and mumble, “Are you fucking serious?” Angrily, I’d close the page and start writing another article.
The biggest reason I felt crushed was that I’d let not being curated define my writing. I thought the rejection meant I wasn’t good enough and that my stories were crap.
I wasn’t just obsessed with being curated; I was obsessed with being validated. That feeling of not being worthy enough to be a writer made me question if I wanted to be one at all.
As time passed, though, that craze faded. If I’m curated, great — but if I’m not, I don’t feel that insecurity or sting of dismissal anymore because I genuinely don’t care.
And you can get there too — with work. I didn’t get where I am because I got lucky, and you won’t magically stop caring either.
