Reflecting on a novel experience

Having been active on Steemit for a week and not really produced anything of significance or substance, I thought it was about time I contributed the obligatory #introduceyourself post, so many of which seem to garner attention and praise.

It proved to be more difficult than I expected. As I sat down, eager to write, it suddenly dawned on me that I had to actually had to attempt to define myself first in order to be able to convey it to others. Now, when you do this for a CV or a Tinder bio you tend to have a singular objective in mind when deciding how to frame it - either get paid or get laid - and it’s almost certainly never a real or true representation of who you are as a person. I guess the same could be said for Steemit to an extent with the promise of spoils in the form of Steem dollars if your post is popular. Rewards are certainly an inescapable influence. But that's a short-sighted view to take.

So yes, the notion of my introduction trending was definitely lurking in the back of my mind, but I also want to point out that at the same time I was confronting a degree of vulnerability and insecurity.

I kept my introduction relatively light-hearted and not too inward-looking or deeply personal. If you read the post you might wonder what the hell I'm talking about here. The vulnerability I’m referring to wasn’t so much about revealing insecurities or deeply personal things about myself, but more about injecting my personality into something that was a thoughtful reflection of myself - something I’m not accustomed to at all, but something that nevertheless represents value on this platform. As I mentioned in the post, blogging or sharing introspective insights isn’t really something I’m comfortable with. Online and IRL I keep myself pretty guarded emotionally. But it felt significant enough to me that I was offering up myself to the world for all to see, open to judgement and criticism, confronting a tangible insecurity head on.

Embrassingly, it took me about 3 days to write and put together, even though it wasn’t a particularly exhaustive or in-depth account of who I am. I do however work full time so don’t have a great deal of spare time on my hands, and as I'm pretty inexperienced the formatting slowed me down. Nevertheless, I struggled to actually come up with interesting things to write about because I'm not used to self-reflection, and when I did I would dwell on how to frame them so that they would be compelling enough to warrant an upvote and some acceptance.

Anyway, lets get to the real reason I'm writing this post.

The realisation...

I wasn’t noticed by a whale. It wasn’t trending. It didn’t reach the level I naively hoped it might reach. I wasn’t raking in thousands of those delicious yet elusive Steem dollars.

>"Why did my post not get the recognition and financial reward that others did? What did they have that I didn't? After all, I’ve seen plenty of introduceyourself posts which didn't deserve the level of reward they attained relative to other content."

This can be a toxic mindset and it undermines the philosophy on which this revolutionary platform is built.

The best analogy I can offer which might help others come to terms with this irrational jealousy you can experience is to consider Steemit a democracy. In a democracy everyone gets the opportunity to vote. Some are more informed and thus better equipped to vote than others. Some are arrogant and just think their vote is of more value than others.
But as an individual, you only get one vote. One voice in an ocean of frantic and belligerent screams.
Nevertheless, the votes are cast and the collective verdict is reached.
The hard truth is that in a democracy you simply cannot please everyone, only serve the interests of the majority.

At some point you have to reconcile with that and do away with any feelings of resentment or bitterness and look at the bigger picture. Even if you disagree with the level of reward that has been given to something, it indicates that others, whose opnions and votes are just as important as yours, perceived some level of quality or inherent value. The subjective nature of taste and freedom of choice in a democracy you cannot avoid, no matter how much you whinge about it.

Granted, I'm not ruling out the possibility that there are forces at play in the Steemit ecosystem that can potentially distort the democratic process as described above, but the point of this analogy and this post in general is that dwelling on those negative aspects gets you nowhere in the grand scheme of things.

You as an indivudal only get one vote, and lets be frank here, complaining about any perceived injustices doesn't change the value of your vote. Only sucking it up and getting to work will do that.
Just turn your attention inward and be honest with yourself. Try to make reasoned judgements and rational observations. Focus on what you can take from or learn from these instances and direct your energy towards emulating that through your own personal development. Reflection, critique and perseverence are paramount to self-improvement.

Stop and smell the roses...

When I reflected on my post that was a relative flop and didn't garner much attention or financial reward I arrived at some surprising conclusions...

I felt a strange and unfamiliar sense of empowerment, one that I never really imagined feeling at all but very much enjoyed nonetheless. Even with the small number of people commenting and supporting what was me confronting a vulnerability in a post about myself, I felt energised and full of inspiration to create more. When I began to put that new found motivation into action it was flowing more freely than I could have expected (I wrote 90% of this post in the 2 hours following it.) This is a totally novel experience for me and it's safe to say I'M HOOKED.

This kind of feels like an epiphanic and galvanising moment in my journey on Steemit. The beginning of a process of trying to pull things out of my head and articulate them into something coherent and meaningful, subsequently bringing something of more substance and value to the communal table here at Steemit.

Getting even a tiny bit of validation for something you have created and injected your personality into is empowering and ancouraging to say the least, and I urge you not to take it for granted just because you didn't make 10k overnight. Embrace it and you will discover that it has a compounding effect fuelled by a sense of gratification and acceptance. This is what I'm starting to realise now is the true value of Steemit as a force for social change - Empowering others to improve and develop, building a constructive network of support with a fundamentally collaborative ethos at it's foundations.

Don't forget or undermine the simple fact that every one of us here, whales and minnows alike, have both the power and the responsibility to pay this forward in whatever way we can and instill the same encouragement and sense of self-worth in others that we receive ourselves. Without that, this platform wouldn't be anywhere near as valuable as it is.

Maybe this isn't news to anybody. The profound level of excitement I felt from only having a small amount of activity and praise on something I created probably stems from the fact that I've never really published anything creative or meaningful before. I've no experience in creative, content-making forums such as this one or any others; Youtube, blogging, vlogging. In fact, I have actively avoided it for years. Naturally there's plenty of Steemit users who are well versed in these mediums and find themselves in familiar territory on this platfom.

But by the same token, I'm sure there's a large concentration of people out there in the 'Steemitsphere' (A term I have just coined ©) who are struggling with insecurities which hold them back without the right support mechanisms in place and the prevailing tendency to resort to resentfulness and jealousy towards those who have been more fortunate in the Steemit democracy. I will be content if this post reaches just a handful of those people and just ever-so-slightly nudges them towards embracing development, self-discovery and becoming the best possible version of themselves. Once you reach that point the financial rewards will likely increase in volume, but they will become secondary to the meaningful transformation.

Above all else, I firmly believe that integrity is what will get you far on this platform.

Here's hoping that the next bit of minor support and success will continue and catalyse my next post to the same extent as this one, and that this post will do the same for someone else.

Take care and thanks for reading.