since I shifted my focus from centralized votes, spammy contents, and comment voting abuse into a natural activity of growing my network, the trend of engagement and followers I received tremendously increased.

Wow! If only this could be the testimonial of #newsteem post-HF!! That's the type of attitude we like to see!!

100% genuine engagment and curating others will get you places!! You have to give before you can receive, and many steemians still don't understand that, Bravo for seeing the light!

Something that might motivate you even more is joining the weekly Engagment and Curation League all you have to do is comment on the post saying I want to join and consider yourself joined, as the leader usually replies before he makes the new post the following week..(Consider yourself joined as of this past Sunday if you comment, so this coming Sunday you will have a score!!)

Then all you have to do is engage how you normally would, and see what your results are come Sunday! Every Sunday is a blank slate, so it's never too late to join! Give it a try :)