700th Youtube Video Milestone

I just reached the 700th video milestone on Youtube a few days ago. That's 100 more videos that I've added since I last wrote about my 50,000 subscriber milestone in early May.

Anyway, I'm writing about milestones because I want to keep a record of my journey on Youtube. I almost wanted to to say my journey as a Youtuber but I don't really see myself as one yet. *laughs* I hate labels. I'm just someone with a Youtube channel.

A lot of work goes behind making each video. I try to keep my videos simple to make. I don't have any special effects, transitions, end screens, openings or even music. Adding the extras requires time, so I keep things simple. Each video you watch probably needs 3-5 times the amount of time to make. Sometimes even more when it's a bad day with lots of retakes. The satisfaction of seeing people responding to the videos motivates me in some way to keep going.

To be able to build something and watch it grow because of the effort you put it can be quite addictive.

Each day, I would wake up excited thinking about what videos I'm going to make. Would it be a sketching video, a book review, or maybe a vlog. I've reached the stage where I would actually feel dejected if I can't make any video. For example, today, I was stuck at home on a rainy day with my neighbour drilling the whole day. I can't record at home, and neither can I go outside to record. Background noise that you can't block off is the worst enemy of any video creator. And that enemy comes in different forms. Today, it's the !@#$ drill. Tomorrow it could be the plane, or the ice-cream truck, or dump truck. Any day with noise is a good day, a productive day.

On good days I make more videos. On bad days like this, I just write instead of making videos to make the best use of time. And I visited the library today to borrow more artbooks to feature. So it's not really an unproductive day.

I make an average of around 20-25 video each month. It took me 2 years to reach this 700th video milestone. I hope I can make another 700 more. I can only imagine what it will be like when I reach the 1500th video milestone. How would I feel about this post as I refer to it in the future. And that's why I'm writing this post today, to document the journey.

So what are the learning points since my last milestone on Youtube.

I guess it's this: Determination and discipline beats inspiration and motivation anytime.

Sometimes I may be inspired but still can't get things done. And I didn't know how to explain it until I recently read a story by a fighter pilot talking about discipline and motivation. Stephen Silver also talked about it today on his Youtube video although he did not use the word discipline.

I've been planning to create an urban sketching course on my Gumroad page to sell for the longest time but haven't got around to do much about it yet. I've only recorded one video out of the 7 I've planned. I could probably finish recording in a week or two at most. I'm inspired but not disciplined enough to do it. Because right now, I'm just so focused on creating videos for my Youtube channel. It's difficult to break out of a habit. I hope by writing about it, I will put the gears into motion.

So that's the learning point. You need discipline to get things done. Of course if what you're doing is something you don't like, you need even more discipline. It's like going to a day job you don't like, but it pays the bills, so you have to have that discipline to get to work each day. It's just different levels of discipline and different forms of discipline.

So the next time you feel inspired, turn that into discipline and do something, create something, write something. Have something that you can look back at in the future and feel proud about.

I guess I shall end here with an updated list of artists on Youtubers that I've been tracking: