Hello steemians, hows it hanging,
I was opportune to be pulled away from my laptop and the constant stream of messages, posts and work for about 7 days straight and in those 7 days, I was able to breath, like literally breath air.
The thing is, while i was always online, I felt a sort of pressure building up, the late nights, the early mornings, the steady stream of posts, the constant buzzing of the phone, etc all these things combined to give an air, an aura of tightness, it was present, but never fully realized(just like that fart that never comes, you know its there, but it ain't coming out).
It wasn't until I was forced to take a break, that I realized I had been suffocating for a while.
The choking of the steem!
Today I sat down and reflected on the past. Before steemit, after steemit, before music production, after music production. I had been having my siblings tell me that I was looking old and stressed but I believed them not, humans have a way to see only what they want to see. Today though, I saw the wrinkles, I saw the stress, I saw the sags in the eye, and it was all ugly.
I'm an introvert, I love the indoors, I love my books, I love to sit in one place and do nothing but research, yet I find that I grow tired like an extrovert would.
I did realize though, that work isnt defined by the environment in which you do it. A painter may be stressed out from moving an easel all day long, a secretary stressed out from all the typing, a musician stressed out from all the recording, a blogger on steemit stressed out from all the time spent typing, proofreading, source hunting, topic selecting, post promoting, community building, etc.
I came to a new conclusion that work, is defined as the amount of hours one puts his mind to focus on a task, the amount of brain power one uses, the amount of mental processing that occurs for an individual in a set time frame.
And steemit is a lot of work.
But,
Despite all the supposed work that goes on with steem, I find people genuinely enjoying the time they spend here. Could it be that I, in the bid to do my very best, created an imaginary prison work station for myself?
Researching, i found out that most humans live a ''rat race'' sort of life. A life of constant seeking, but never finding, constant running, but never reaching the goal.
Rat Race: Any exhausting, unremitting and usually competitive activity or routine, especially a pressured urban working lifestyle, spent trying to get ahead with little time left for leisure, contemplation, etc
I speak of my situation, but its evident that this is the way most people on steemit today live their lives.
Always seeking for that next upvote
Always watching the price of steem and SBD on the market
Always worried about achieving one goal or another
The fun of the site is lost in a constant struggle to get that next upvote.
I remember telling people that the site is a community, a place to interact and form bonds. But a tense and highly political environment is the last place anyone would want to form a bond in. The toxic elements aren't helping matters either, causing riffs between communities and sub communities, causing flag wars and all sort of vices.
I look at steemit right now and shake my damn head. The thirst is real, the thirst for power, money, recognition, upvotes, wealth.
Chill out!
This is me, hoping that one or more individual can see this and go, ''oh, I've been taking this the wrong way too, rather than take this as a full time kill myself on it kind of job, let me just relax and go with the flow of the community''.
I have people to help, guide and mentor here, and I do it with all diligence, that doesn't mean I have to kill myself or get a high-blood pressure because of some imaginary deadline. As much as I enjoy using and living on the site, I want to be part of a community, not work in an upvote factory.
Thanks
images gotten from pixabay.com