Jordan Ogren

April 12, 2022

Why stagnant subscriber growth is... GOOD.

Not everyone flew a Lockheed P-38 Lightning during WWII.

Not everyone will give birth to a wet-looking alien; I mean human.

So, to gain specific life lessons, you need to seek out those with specific experiences we will never have.

Now, some of the lessons from the legendary fighter pilot man could be the same as the woman who was the first supreme court justice.

The lesson is that to gain certain learnings from life, you will have to extract them rather than experience them.

Many of you will never write a daily email. Hell, I didn’t think I would either a year ago.

But in my year and three months of writing daily, I’ve learned some lessons I didn’t know before. Lessons that only come from writing and shipping daily.

While I’ve shared many lessons, I do not believe I’ve shared this one yet. Maybe it’s a newfound lesson or because I was ashamed to share.

Anyways, here is the lesson:

By doing something that doesn’t grow or “blows up,” we gain and strengthen the required muscles to sustain effort and perseverance.

The growth of this daily newsletter has been stale. That’s okay.

By showing up every day, even when it’s not growing like a weed, I’ve built the discipline required to sustain my efforts.

I’m not waiting for the dopamine hit when I reach 1,000 subscribers, or my post goes viral. Instead, I put on my writing pants every morning and sit and write.

I write for those who are already here.
I write to expand myself.
I write to write.

Too many people haven’t been blessed with my stagnant growth. They don’t create to create.

They write to gain more followers to make them feel important.
They write to garner the masses’ attention to overcome their insecurity.

Once the growth stops or the dopamine runs dry, they stop. They don’t have the muscle to keep going when there is no reason to continue.

The lesson: Focus on the input (e.g., writing daily, shooting a video every other day) rather than the output (e.g., followers, likes, views). 

And by focusing on the input, you will gain the muscle required to continue when the output is bleak.

Sometimes stale growth isn’t always a bad thing. 
If you know the right way to reframe it.

🧠 + ❤️ // JO