Forget About The Fucking Money On Steemit For A Second, Dedicated To @Klye Who Shook Up My Brain!
Forget about the fucking money for a second.
If you don't like cussing, leave now. I want to cuss tonight and there will be a lot of it.
I had been searching all day, starting at 9:30 am for something interesting to read on Steemit. I began the day with a challenge: I wanted to see if I could create 100 high quality comments on people's posts. I wrote about 8 comments on people's blog posts from a variety of sections: new, hot and active, but then I forgot all about an interview I had with George at 11:00 am. Fuck! I got ready in ten minutes for the interview. I think I'm done with interviews though.
Anyway, after the interview, I resumed trying to locate interesting posts. I found one from @dragonho that I quite liked, and some others, but I was finding it supremely difficult to find much that impacted me on a visceral level.
The day continued until BAM! I found @klye's post about how to stop worrying about money. It blew apart my fucking mind! This was the article I had been searching for all fucking day!!!!!!
Here it is:
https://steemit.com/money/@klye/how-to-stop-worrying-about-money
If you don't want to read it, basically, it made me feel exactly like this:
You see, ever since I returned from vacation and Steemit has become quite popular with over 70,000 people, I have noticed that I am not possessed any more by that outrageous zeal, that unstoppable passion and energy that first overtook me on June 8, 2016, when I first accidentally fell into the Steemit rabbit hole.
Those first four weeks were a haze of sleepless nights, unending study sessions in which I devoured the Whitepaper, Dan's blog, every YouTube video on BitShares, Steem and literally anything related to Ned and Dan's beginning phases.
My brain was quite literally blown to shreds, and I am not sure if people will remember this or not, but I had frequent hallucinatory episodes which were brought into existence because my brain was overstimulated with new information, lots of it. My passion for absorbing new information plus my prolific writing binge on Steemit caused me to instantly quit my day jobs, and I decided with abandon that I would throw myself into the Steemit universe without any realistic notions or practical concerns about money, outcome or anything else.
I was gripped, like the Gila Monster to the jaws of Steemit. I had fire.
There were few people in those early days, and everyone stood out because the news feed was so slow. I realized from the first days in Steemit that it would become crowded, and very soon, too. It did.
The dark spectre of money now looms large over every potential post that you or I decided to commit our energies to. There is stress inside our creative minds. We ask ourselves, "What will people read? Will the whales vote for my post? Is my post interesting to anyone? Why would anyone read anything I write?
The devaluing of our inner selves continues its merciless march towards this thought: what if I keep on posting and no one ever cares?
What if my small $100 posts start to turn into $10 posts and then $5? What will happen when the big celebrities enter the scene and the REAL competition shows up? What happens when big name writers appear, like Elizabeth Gilbert, essentially overshadowing all half-wits and smallish, no-name writers? Yes, it will be good for Steemit, but then what exactly should the no-name writers do? I have these fears, too. Remember, I quit all my professional writing gigs. I'm just not terribly interested in anything else at the moment. The Steemit beast still looms large in the realm of possibilities.
This is the point that I want to say: FUCK THE MONEY. JUST FUCKING FORGET ABOUT IT.
Just seeing this idea coming from someone else makes me feel better! The passion I had in the beginning was partly fueled by the money, but it was fueled by something else too: seeking knowledge.
I know people will not be able to forget about the money, but it's true. It wasn't until I read this by @Klye that I realized that I was caring too much about money and had started to treat Steemit like a job.
I was getting careful!
In getting careful, I was losing my sense of purpose, my passion and I was losing the fun. Here's part of his post that woke me up:
One final thing I should mention is that you can have all of the income in the world but if you spend it frivolously and foolishly on outlandish toys and needless vices you will soon find yourself once again poor and worrying about money. While being able to acquire great wealth is impressive and will give a good person great ability to improve their life, it is not a cure all. Money is merely a tool that could be viewed as a magnifier of people's character.
He is so right! Money is only a magnifier of character! I've become careful and a bit boring! I'm not boring! I need to return to being myself, the person who is an explorer, a risk taker and an adventurer without cares about money.
Before I had received low payouts for my posts, I was seized by an insatiable desire to build out a team of what I refer to as "Black Swans". This team's mission would be to find people who really want to become free (say, getting out of the 9-5 world) and then assisting them in a quite fantastical way. I have the entire thing mapped out in my mind how such an operation would work. I think it has tremendous potential. The selection of the team is crucial, as the skills required are intense. At any rate, I noticed that once my post payouts began to drop, I started worrying. I began to be consumed, like everyone else about the payouts! The whale vote has pretty much vaporized from my posts, and that began the feeling of being constrained again, like I was in the past before I found Steemit.
Then the price of Steem began falling, and before you know it, I am in a terrible mindset and the dream of building the Black Swan team has sort of vanished because that idea was created in a mindset of abundance, creativity and freedom!
It has happened so fast, and the cause is money, the worry that it will disappear.
I'm choosing today to live by what @klye has stated and I reformed into a new phrase: Just fucking forget about the money. Do the things that are scary, unknown and have the potential for great change.
Do the things that you're good at, that have the potential to benefit lots of people, especially you! Find your value, digging deeper every day. A happy person is a person who can give to others!
That person was right when they said, "You're not doing the world a favor when you play small." It's true!
Today, is a start of a new day in which I choose the fearful route, the one that seems impossible, full of trials, unknowns and mysteries!
It no longer matters if I am a failure here, and for some reason fall out of favor with the whales. I am going to follow my internal directives that are pushing me to do something that is scary and challenging. Something that gets my blood boiling again. I do not want my creative inspirations to be squashed by trifling worries! I want to really live in that third layer.
For, as Kamal Ravikant says, "On the other side of fear, that is where the magic is."
All gifs from giphy.com
Oh, and I think I am taking a break from publishing the Secret Writers. I need some days off to just go back to being me for a while. This means longer wait times. Be patient. I need my fun back.
Its refreshing to know that even with your more reputable position in the community, you still take moments to evaluate and readjust, and most importantly, be true to yourself. That is where successful people go wrong- they lose themselves admist the success. I don't know you, but- cussing and all ;)- get the vibe that you are truly a good person, and the world needs as much of that as it can get.
Also a side note about money. While for some, money is a driving factor, remember that below those, there are very tiny minnows- tadpoles even? Where money is so nonexistient it can't even be a driving factor lol. I am very new and at this point, I've had some upvotes, some discussions, and a few cents. But, everyone of those upvotes feels amazing, even if the payout stats at zero vecause that means somewhere out there, someone is reading. We are not completely lost, and I love the excitement of that. So my point in bringing that up is that for the tiny little tadpoles, it is nice to know ypur post is even getting read, rather then wondering if a single person even saw it.
Yes, I have considered what it must be like from the vantage of a tadpole. One must never forget that all of us, even me started out at zero. I remember when my upvotes meant nothing, and I didn't even understand how to upvote. The whales would upvote strategically, when I was still upvoting like I was in facebook. I'm still not strategic in curation or upvoting. I never was. I always employed basic social media etiquette, and it's always better not to factor in past successes very much. That will actually burn people.
Yes, absolutely. I think people tend to see a successful person in their current light, and fail to consider what it took for them to get there. Your reply reminded me of a quote that I found very empowering awhile back "let your mess be your message". And not to take that literally, necause I'm not saying you are aa mess nor do I know you to know yoyr specifics. But- because you DID start in the beginning, your "message" of being able to start from the bottom and get to a successful place is inspiring to those beginning their own journey.
I know what you mean about using other social media etiquette. I used facebook the moat, and I used the like button in excess. I didn't want to not like a comment and se3m offensive, so I liked pretty much every comment made to me. Lol. I have to remind myself here that the upvote button is not the equivilent of the like button. I referred to it in a comment the other day as "still washing off other social media residue." Anyway, thanks for your reply and vote, I'm glad my thoughts were worthwhile, and I always enjoy a good conversation. :)
I still feel a certain loyalty to those who take time and create an insightful comment. I think my strength lies in the ability to hone in on those who take time to write comments. The sea out there is huge, and will continue to get bigger. Steemit could be quite powerful if the concept of mutual aid societies takes off. Creating tribes could be one of the next phases as people begin to form bonds organically that meet their needs. Also, as people begin to understand who to trust based on their interactions, they will necessarily be the ones with whom they do business. These next stages I think are just around the corner...
Your loyalaty is appreciated and encouraging. :) thats a great ability because without discussion- which takes more then one party, postbecome pretty lifeless. I have always been a comment scroller; its a way to learn more and see other view points and in turn expand yours on the topic, but that was one of the things that really got me stepping away from facebook. The comments there are more often then not name calling, arguing, and general negativity. Its really inviting to not see that here and to realize that debate and discussion is still possible without putting one another down. In fact, that was one of the things that made me explore more.
You're right about the sea only getting bigger. I think some kind of feature to "resurect" posts that weren't caught would be helpful, even an "inactive" section. General consensus that I've seen is that many quality posts go unseen. If they aren't caught right away, or kept active, they fade off and it would be nice and I think beneficial to have a way to look at these. There could be a gem there, just waiting to be dug up.
I'm sure tribes are inevitable, I juat hope they don't become cliquey... but so far Steemit as a whole has been supportive, open minded, and welcoming, so hopefully it keeps that mindset. cliques alienate, whereas tribes welcome. It will be interesting for sure to see how things devolop in the near future.
Money is only a tool. With tools you need to know how to use them, and not really abuse them. There is also a safety techniques like with any other tool. Remember a lot of lottery winners end up dead and/or worse off than before the lottery. Why? Because they have no idea about using money to improve their lives. Because they stick by the same habbits they had before winning, only throw much more money at them.
The good use of money provides freedom. Freedom to do what you consider valuable.
So a good place to start is to get your priorities together. It doesn't matter if you have money or not. Of course there are some priorities that override others, and can provide a lot of worry. Food, water, shelter, health. But after they are covered, what is important? What is fun?
Yeah, leisure activities can be fun. But they are fun for a while, and if it is only thing that you do they become tiring. I know a lot of people that say that they are not, so maybe there are people who can spend their whole life laying by the pool, but I think most of them only want that because it is something they can't have. A luxury. Luxury is primarily valuable because it is scarse, right?
Once you had your fill, what will you be up to? I think Joseph Campbel has a good idea about that. Something doing that creates "sacred space". It is different for everybody, but it is something that puts you, as the gamers say "in the zone". A lot of times if you are doing that it will also improve your financial situation. But if you are well of financially it is something that you should consider doing with your time, and stop worrying about the tools too much. I mean most people don't worry about their axes, or kitchen knives, or pencils, or computers beyond the required maintenance, or until after they break. If so much people worry about money, perhaps the money is broken? _On the bright side it is a good chance to become aware of that fact. Crisis and change are actually the same thing. It is only problematic if you try sticking with the old and don't get on with the times.
This was my one coherent post for the day. For some reason I do them better in the comments. Perhaps it has something to do with the quality of posts that provoke the comment. It is something that I noticed a long time ago in other areas, that I do much better if I have someone better to bounce off. I should think a bit about doing more colaborative work, otherwise my posts come out barely coherent and are in my opinion a jumbled mess, that I keep editing through the day. At least I know what I should work on. :-)
I experience this too, when commenting just feels so much easier to do than come up with a complete, coherent and well-designed post. Your comment was insightful, for sure. Many of us who have been chasing money, just barely enough to live, are not used to freedom. I know I am not. I have been out of money for a long time. When you don't have money, life feels dull and tiresome because you have to use your energies very wisely. I think I was working myself to death for years. This is the first real break I've been able to give myself in a long, long time. But it feels weird, very odd to not make the most out of every minute of the day like I was doing before.
I think the post provides support, and the comment is like a vine or any other little plant, maybe even a mushroom. If the post is a big strong tree, then the little plants thrive around it.
In the good environment the grassy plants support the saplings till they grow, and vise versa.
In the future when your situation improves, think about the following. When you do something you both produce and consume energy. It is best to do things that give more energy than they cost. Those things you can export, that is exchange for money. Other things that are not very efficient is possibly something that others are good at, so it might be possible to outsource them. It is best if the people around you complement each other in terms of what they enjoy doing.
I had an insight about thinking about economics and how ecosystems work, because all those things they are trying to emulate ecosystems, and those can be good or bad: variety rises, everything thrives, or things get stagnant & variety falls. Should observe & think more before having a solid model, but already there is some things are becoming apparent.
what a great smack in the face post!
I agree with what you and @Klye are saying, and I don't get bent out of shape over the money involved on Steemit. It's not why I participate. But I have to say, I was still pretty happy this morning when you upvoted one of my posts and brought it out of the less-than-a-dollar fate it was destined for. Peace!
I did that this morning because I was putting myself in the shoes of the newbies! I was feeling those creeping $1 as if it were my own post. That's why I did that! I had to since I have not done that in a while...
Go check my posts if you get a chance. I'm all about spreading the love to the newbies. You should write a post about how active newbies are the life blood of this community. Without the newbies coming in and staying active where done. Newbies deserve more curation power, curation rewards and author rewards.
Oh well that's nice you help each other. I am still creeping and I am ok with it ! I am not a big social butterfly anymore and if you or anybody else appreciates my contribution to this platform , I am happy and it's great but if not I will still be ME in Backstage observing all ego issues . I closed my eyes for the trending pages for a while but keep my mind open to find nice content I appreciate . It's a shame I can't give them even a cent , yet . Otherwise I never gave a damn about money . I always will have enough
I remember you.... I will always do
I also remember you :) You deserve your success .
Thank YOU !!!
I remember you too. I think it's great you have mastered the 'everything in moderation' approach to life. I never mastered it. For me, it's all or nothing. Steemit is still a big game that will never be completely figured out.
Absolutely spot on. I thought Klye made some great points.
If you are constantly worried about money (or anything for that matter) you can't focus on what you actually need to do.
My personal belief is that as long as you work hard and do things right it is bound to pay off in the end and that doesn't just apply to Steemit it applies to life in general.
Successful people don't worry about things too much because worry is a form of fear. Fear is a restriction and prevents you from taking the risks you need to take in order to achieve your goals.
I think we can all fall into the fear/worry trap occasionally and it takes something to give us a kick up the backside and refocus on what is important.
Looks like Klye's post did that for you.
Well said indeed. There's no point in worrying about things that are beyond your control. All you can do is focus on the things you can control and try to maximize your chances of success. I'm reminded of an old trading adage that I try to live by: trade to trade well, not to make money. Similarly, I would say: write to write well, not to make money. Focus on consistently putting out quality content that translates your passions to the written word!
Have you ever watched Shawn Anchor's TED talk on "The Happy Secret to Better Work"? He addresses how our moods can literally impact our personal and professional success.
wow, well said. I agree with you. You need to write a book. I'd definitely read it.
Maybe one day I will :)
I 100% get what you are saying. In my life I really try to stick to the middle path. For me this means that, on steemit, I have to be very careful. I need to balance my desire to be a helpful member of this site, earn a little money, but not let it consume me to the point where I shortchange my family. Up until I posted about trying to figure out the perfect way to participate here I was definitely going overboard. After reading the responses to that post, I have reflected and pulled back a little. I don't have to be in the top 10 most active people her... I just need to enjoy the fact that this place exists. I need to stop chasing perfection. Let's all take a breath and enjoy.
I have never "wanted" money. But I have a dire "need" of it.
When money has become an obsession, that's the point where we have to pause and rethink our position. It is not the money that is EVIL, it is the LOVE of money. And I have witnessed so many people "falling in LOVE" with it that eventually met their downfall.
Rich people have so much of it not because of their LOVE of money. It is because they know how it works and how to use it to their advantage, not the other way around.
If we are consumed by it, we can be sure we are damned.
It is difficult when this platform is built on monetary rewards! Most people are consumed by the nature of this site, and are addicted to the casino feel, myself included!
I joined that same club! But when I got less-than-meager earnings on my posts, I had to accept the fact that making money in Steemit is not as glorious as it sounded. I had to change my perspective. I have never written so much in my entire life until I found Steemit. And for that, I am thankful. My writing has improved although not as comparable to yours ;-) but I have learned so much in this platform. And that, is more than money to me.
Very true! We were initially drawn here for the money and new economic potentials, but we stay for the community and knowledge. Even if Steem devalues, there is still a wealth of knowledge here. Lots of smart people with intelligent and creative ideas and stories. I think Steemit has already proven its success. Money is just one incentive. The goal is to enjoy life.
Thank you for this. You put into words what's been creeping up in the back of my mind. Steemit could not have come at a better time for me, creatively. As a professional content writer, I'm thrilled to be able to use my gift to help business owners succeed - but of course, it's not exactly creative writing (well, not in the common sense, even though there's a level of creativity needed to make the mundane or technical interesting).
For YEARS, I've been telling myself that someday I'd free myself to write the stories rattling around in my mind. It never happened until Steemit. I was scared. Scared that they wouldn't be good enough to justify the effort and time needed to write them, mostly. Now, because there's the possibility of finding a readership and even maybe seeing their appreciation of my creations in the form of money, spending hours (ok, sometimes days) creating now feels justifiable to me. Steemit's giving us the opportunity to let multiple flames ignite in our creative minds - and then give them the air they need to burn.
If that's not life-changing for a creative, I don't know what is.
Exactly. That is precisely what I saw in Steemit too. That's why I could not turn away. It felt the solution to the problems I'd had for the last ten years. And I like that we all exposed to radically different ideas. Modern social media shields us from people who are unlike us, and it is like blinders. Steemit exposes us to everything, and it makes for a better mix of global people. Most of my long-term friends here are not Americans. They seem to be from Norway, Canada, UK, Nigeria, Germany. I find it so interesting that Steemit has been able to mostly obliterate country divides. This is a radical shift from what we have on Facebook I think. I believe it is because Steemit is meeting our needs in ways that other social media platforms cannot.
I love your mind @stellabelle wake up calls are great. Those ones where you stop and say "what the fuck am I doing" This life is for living and it is very short. Another reason i dislike the "9-5" they make the week go so fast, you're exhausted. the only reason you do it is to make Money to live. Money to live? Seems strange doesn't it. Constant worry about bills - such a mechanical way to live. And most people are stuck, it shouldn't be that hard to break free. Something needs to change
It's incredibly hard to break free from it because you need a replacement plan going while you're working. This is exhausting, but necessary. I wrote my book largely during the time I was a car saleswoman. On my down time, which was considerable, I would be writing my book on my smartphone, using the Google Docs app. People thought I was texting. I was not! I was able to get a big chunk done that way. So, I had already started my plan while continuing to earn money. That is what is usually missing in most people's plan to "escape the 9-5". Usually, they don't know what to do. They know what they don't want to do, but usually have no idea how to replace it.
Writing a book is a great idea, and completely doable - I'm envisioning lots of people being able to put together a book from their collection of writings right here on this site. Even if Steemit never makes any of us rich, it can provide a motivation for thousands of people to write down their passions that they can then take out into the world in published form. But I do have a question about this - can people publish text elsewhere that they've published on Steemit?
Oh yes! You own your own content. Steemit has no copyrights over your own work. This is great for writers! This is why i am here! I hate a publication owning my content.
Excellent news, and all I needed to hear! I've been trying to find this out since I got here, and knowing this, the opportunities are endless!