Am I the Victim?
What losing my blog articles taught me.
I'm sad.
Recently, the newsletter platform I had been using — Revue — was discontinued by Twitter. Before they erased everything, there was a transition period for us to export our subscriber lists and past content.
But, since August 2022, I had been on a break from writing, and I didn’t know about this until it happened.
See where this is going?
🤡 I lost my blog articles
Well, not everything.
Thankfully, my last writing flow looked like this 👇️
Write the draft in Notion,
Copy it into Revue for editing, and
Save each published article as a PDF backup.
Once, I learned from College Info Geek that having just one storage — in this case, Revue itself — is a bad, bad idea. So, I almost always drafted elsewhere and kept a copy of almost every letter after it was sent out.
But, see the keyword almost?
For the last seven articles, I somehow stopped backing them up. Yes, the drafts are still there, but they are imperfect as editing could change the structure a lot. It’s heartbreaking, but it’s still a million times better than losing the core ideas altogether, don’t you think?
What a silver lining.
🧗 One great lesson I learned
Going through this reminds me of something I read from The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco — the Law of Victims.
You can't be a victim if you don't relinquish power to someone capable of making you a victim.
—MJ DeMarco, The Millionaire Fastlane
MJ told a story of how his friend got her identity stolen. While she was grumbling about it as they both dined in a restaurant, he posed a few questions.
I asked, "How did your identity get stolen?"
"My purse was stolen in Mexico."
"How did that happen?" I probed.
"I was at a restaurant and someone swiped it."
"Oh? Was your purse laid out, wide-open on the table, like it is now?"
—MJ DeMarco, The Millionaire Fastlane
Damn.
MJ’s friend relinquished the power to safeguard her purse to someone capable of making her a victim — the thief. Hence, she couldn't be a victim by the Law of Victims. Rather, she failed to hold herself accountable and learn from her mistake — not keeping her purse safe in her lap.
Now, compare this story to mine. Sounds familiar?
Honestly, I can't deny that I felt upset about losing my precious work. Be it seven or one, they were ideas that took time and effort to write about. Would you be happy losing something you put your heart into? I doubt so.
But, like MJ's friend, I had also relinquished the ability to keep my content safe to someone else, so I couldn't play the victim and rant all about it. Even if I did, what’s the point? I wouldn't get them back anyway.
📌 The bottom line
Most bad situations are consequences of bad choices. Own them and you own your life. No one can steer you off course, because you are in the driver's seat.
—MJ DeMarco, The Millionaire Fastlane
As MJ put it, I should own my mistake and move on. Though it has been unpleasant, this experience has given me the chance to start over after a long, long break. As I gradually move into a new and (hopefully) better platform, there's never been a better time to step up my writing game.
And, of course, ensuring I back up each article is one of the first few steps.
See you next week!
—Thomas
P.S.
After writing this, a thought crossed my mind — Wasn’t I sending the past letters to those who subscribed? Didn’t I subscribe using a dummy account too?
*check my email archive*
HOLY WATERMELON!
I JUST FOUND THEM!
What a plot twist. Though I got those seven articles back, I still couldn't retrieve my mailing list 🤡 so if you enjoy this but haven't subscribed, do consider it :D