Hello Steemit community my name is Eric Burdon and today marks the first official day that I've been on this site. My pen name is Eric S Burdon and I've been a writer for the past two soon-to-be three years. On the side, I also have a Youtube channel which I strive to upload a video every Friday.

But enough about me. As much as learning about a person is helpful, I believe the biggest way to understand a person is through a three things. Their actions, hustle, and purpose.

Actions

Actions and decisions are the biggest things that determine a persons image. These actions can be things that they did or things they didn't do as well. For me, my actions have been fairly small in the grand scheme of things.

I've published a book that very few have purchased.

I have a Youtube channel with a small follower base. The same applies to my personal blog ericscottburdon.com as well as a platform I use frequently called Medium.

And that's about it.

True it may not be remarkable, in fact others may think less of me. But the thing with actions is though they define you today, they don't define you forever.

A good example is Oprah Winfrey, a woman who I'm sure the vast majority of people know who she is. She is a successful woman with a lot of wealth. But did you know at 13 years old she was raped and impregnated by one of her uncles? Did you know she and her parents were so poor Oprah wore bags for clothing?

Stating any of those facts to someone without uttering her name and most would say today she has no chance of making it big. Yet Oprah did and now everyone knows her.

Actions mean something, but they aren't the definitive factor of what makes a person, or what makes me. Although it does help you to understand a little of who I am.

Their Hustle

The second thing that determines a person is their work. Not necessarily their actions in the past, but the actions that they have planned. Digging into specifically what their work entails.

For myself, that's self improvement. I've been in this industry since I started writing and as I continue to practice my writing, the more I get better at it.

At the start it was technical and boring. Even I had some difficulty thinking of ideas after the first few articles. But I pressed on and soon enough writing comes as natural to me as breathing.

In the end, my goal for writing is to help people, it's honestly my purpose in my life, this brings me to my next point.

Their Purpose

The biggest and most definitive way to determine who a person is is their purpose. In essence it's a mission statement of who they are. It's through purpose that our actions are manifested. People can be remembered for good or bad reasons depending on their purpose, their goals, and how devoted they are to completing them.

For me, I want to teach people how to live a positive life.

It's why my blog says "A blog to a positive life".

It's why I started a new playlist on my Youtube channel titled "The Positive Life".

My desire to help people stems from when I was a teenager, going through depression. During that process I helped other people, even though I was struggling. However through connecting with people and having a few life changing moments, I've ended up here.

I realize that it's my duty to help other people. And so I write and make videos that can help people live this life more profoundly. It also in a sense brings you along on my journey as well as I too am striving to live a positive life.

The Positive Life

Everyone can live a positive life when we choose to work on ourselves. I've already posted two of my pieces to help with that and certainly more will come as the days go by. For now though I want to leave you with a question:

What is a positive life to you?

One thing I realize about my journey is each person version of a successful life is all different. Sure every person wants to make millions of dollars, but not everyone is willing to go through the work of building a business and devoting years of their time and energy to building it.

So devote some time to think about what it really means to you. Leave it in the comments below.

To your growth!

Eric S Burdon