What impact has your writing had on the world so far of which you are aware? Note the emphasis, my dudes. Just because you don’t know whether or not your writing has had an impact someplace doesn’t mean that it has not. For all you know, the last thing you sent out into the world (article, short story, blog post, hell, maybe even a tweet or an email) could be printed out and taped to someone’s fridge because it speaks to them. So, resist the lure of jumping to the conclusion that your writing has had zero impact. We’re heavily socialized to be goofy and abuse modesty to ourselves like that, so fight it.
That said, your task for today is to take at least one minute and consider how your writing might have impacted people who have read it. Then, take at least the next minute and think about the impact you want your writing to have— from the impact of the next thing you write and release all the way to what you want the legacy of your writing to be and how it will have mattered long after you’re gone. Note any gaps between the type of impact you’re having and the kind of impact you want to have. Proceed accordingly. Let’s go.