About 42 seconds ago I made a decision that will radically change the way in which I spend my time. This decision has the potential to change my life dramatically, and without Steemit I am not sure it would be possible.

I have a long-held passion for self-improvement, and over the last decade, I have allocated much of my spare time towards learning new things and refining the skills that I already have.

The thing is, all that I have allowed myself the time to learn has been dictated by so many aspects of my life-- none more so than the never-ending struggle to make ends meet. I have been very efficient at making excuses not to learn the things I have always wanted to learn, typically by convincing myself I am too old to start now.

Today that changes. I no longer want to use my spare time to learn, whilst wasting the bulk of it attempting to acquire little bits of paper or numbers on a screen. From now on, all of my time will be allocated towards learning that which I have wanted to for longer than I can recall, and towards achieving the goals that I have set for myself.

So many years and countless hours of my life have been spent trying to survive, but now any attempts to survive will be made only in my spare time. It's a complete reversal of priorities-- and one that is long overdue.

Steemit already provided me with an opportunity to get my message out there to the world whilst earning some rewards in the process. But, an honest look at the last year has informed me that this message is not nearly loud enough to be considered a productive use of my time. More often than not, my words are being read by only those who need them least, so no longer will I squander my time shouting into the crowd hoping the world will suddenly change for the better.

I have decided that I will no longer procrastinate by naively attempting to transform the exterior world into one that better suits my perspective on how thing ought to be. No. I will now focus the majority of my time onto the achievable- the transformation of the interior. The betterment of myself.

What I want

I have wanted to learn Spanish, Italian and Japanese for such a long time. I've also wished that I knew how to write code for far too long. It's surely been at least five years since I told myself that I would learn to play a few advanced song on the piano to help overcome my inability to focus on more than one thing at a time.

I also want to get back to being as good at drawing as I was when I was a child, as well as reacquiring many other skills that were lost to me while I was out trying to survive.

My life will now revolve around learning to do these very things that I have desired for so long, and thanks to Steemit, the learning process may turn out to be fruitful in a monetary sense. Can you think of anything better than earning while learning all the things you want to be able to do? I am not sure I can in this moment. That sounds just about perfect, and I intend to find out if it is possible.

I cannot say that I have it all planned out. I don't yet know how I will present my self-education as entertainment, but ideas are not something I have ever been lacking in, so I know that I will think of something very quickly.

Because of this change in direction, my blog too will have some noticeable differences. You can expect to see a lot more of me, by means of videos on D.tube and perhaps Dlive, for I don't think writing about my learning experiences will be entertaining enough to warrant repeat viewing. But by getting on video, I may be able to add a new dynamic to the learning process, giving people the opportunity to simply sit back and learn something too, or enjoy watching me fail repeatedly before I eventually get shit right.

Wish me luck

I understand the risks that could arise with me taking this new approach to how I use my time. The most obvious danger is that by reserving all my time and energy for self-development, time that was once spent trying to earn money to live, I may find myself without the funds to make ends meet.

I'm no longer worried about this. The more I learn, the more I will have to share, and therefore--in theory-- the more I will earn. But even if not, I have learned in my life that there is always going to be times when you have less than what you believe you need, but you get by anyway. This is proof that we believe we need far more than we actually do. I may run into problems, but if I do, I will deal with them, or endure them.

I will allow no more excuses to keep me from the things I was supposed to do-- those things being; exactly what I want to do.

Time to get started

I am really excited about this change, and I hope that some of my longstanding followers will share this new forgotten journey with me, and perhaps if it turns out well for me, it may inspire the same sort of decisions within others.

Right now I am going to start learning to play a song from Final Fantasy VII on piano. I have no idea how it is going to go. But it is what I want to do, and I am going to do it. Fuck everything else-