No matter how much we love to deny this, we need to accept that happiness, in some instances, is determined by the amount of money we have. Let's say, for example, that your dream is to have a big beautiful house in a certain place and in a certain country.
While having a family and doing things you love may make you happy, I'm sure having the money you need to buy that house will increase your happiness.
That's why most of us focus on getting as much value as we can from the things we do. That's one of the reasons most and most people here, on Steemit, post all kind of useless articles, some featuring only one image, hoping to get lucky and make thousands of dollars.
It doesn't work like that. In order for you to get a lot of money, you need to either work really hard, and create really awesome products, or you need to create gifts for the people willing to take them.
By gifts I don't mean giveaways or all kind of contest. By gifts I mean valuable content. I mean something created by you, that has value, and you give, for free, to other people.
Once you work for money alone, you may be inclined to do whatever it takes to achieve your goal, like creating really low quality articles or trying to fake the way you behave in order to try and make people like you.
And who knows, that may work for a while, but eventually people will get tired of the way you do things, and then you'll be left with nothing. People will, eventually, get tired of your content, because you don't do much to create something new and unique. Why would you? You're getting the money you need.
That's why, if you want to get money, especially on Steemit, you need to start writing articles that interest you, articles that make you happy, and articles that are not intended to get any kind of upvotes. If you learn how to create things for your followers, and if you learn how to serve your users, you will get more rewards than you ever expected.
All you have to do is make sure you do the things you love, because you love them, and not because you want something from others. That's why people who write about things they really like usually end up on the "trending" section of Steemit. It's because they spent maybe 6 hours writing one single article, trying to make it as good as it can be, because they love the subject they approached.
The way to think about this is pretty simple - if you want to get rich, don't do it for the money. Focus on bringing value to people, and others will make sure you get the rewards you deserve.