I remember when I started on Steem at a time which seems close to a million years ago. While a lot has changed in that time, I don't know if the rate of change or type of change is suitable. What I do know however is, I have changed.
When I arrived we were in a fairly desperate position in my household and had very, very limited opportunity to move. Every day was a challenge, and the nights were worse. Even though there has been very little let up over that time, things are becoming easier through practice and of course, financial ease as I have upped my workload enormously over that time.
While I did arrive on Steem in the hope of financial return on my work, I quickly realised that it was not going to happen fast enough. What was apparent to me though is there was an opportunity to get in at the ground floor of a leading edge technology and burgeoning industry, the more I learn the more I believe this to be true.
As said, I have changed a lot in the last two years and a great deal of it is due to the facing of my various life challenges through my writing. Even though a lot of it isn't out into words on the Blockchain, the processing goes on with every post I create. This has helped me become more adaptive and not importantly, much more resilient to hardship than I was earlier and, I have never been weak in the face of adversity.
Is there value in the process? Perhaps that is the only way to evaluate value because it has to come down to consistency of shine kind. Some people enter the lottery on the hope to win but, does that classify as a process? I don't think so.
Of course, doing everything well doesn't mean success, it just opens the door wider and perhaps from a quality of life perspective, the process of improvement in what one values doing is what is important. If you look at reports on quality of life measures, they are nearly all measured materially because, that is all that can be measured and compared. Based on material possession and access, it is then inferred that quality of life is connected.
Connected yes, but not complete. Those without food want food, those without a Ferrari want a Ferrari - the list of wants are endless but of course, some are necessary, such as the food and basic resources to live. The problem is that as we get our core needs met, the next "need" arises and feels much like that of the last, the desire to satisfy it has the same hunger pangs.
I once read that the reason people put on weight after quitting smoking is because the withdrawal symptoms of cigarettes feels like hunger, eating however doesn't relieve the symptom so, people try eating more. The quest for desires fulfilled is much like that, the want of result is endless which is why I think process toward result is off much greater importance.
While wanting result is a future-based position, development of process is an ongoing behaviour that is always tied to the moment. How one acts now is what lead to results, good or bad. I think that many people on Steem spend time thinking of the future without developing a process that leads there or, investigating whether what they are doing is on the pathway to where they want to be. If one finds out that what is done now doesn't lead to there, what is done now should change, the process developed now.
It seems that many think that no matter what they do or how they behave now, what they want in the future is available. It is a poor process, much like trying to win the lottery as the way out of financial hardship.
I remember one time around a decade ago when I was in a very dire fun economic position and I entered the lottery. I remember fantasizing being able to cover my debts and not worry over my mortgage or scrape change for fuel to visit clients who earned millions a year. I didn't win, but that is a terrible process for personal finance.
What is interesting is that over the last couple years we have been in much the same position yet, the worry is not there. The reason is that I am much more resilient to the hardships and know that day whatever arises, I will face it or die trying. What does it matter as I do not fear my own death.
Steem has helped me develop a process of work and, helped me value my time much more than I did earlier. As said, process is always now and the only time I have available is now. If right now I am not doing something that provides quality of life, why would I be doing it now? What a waste of life it would be.
My process is always changing, sometimes small and occasionally large but, adjusting constantly. How I see Steem future is having work put in highly rewarded but, that will be process dependent. It has to be. Those who have worked on their process now will be the ones who will get the byproducts of the process in the future.
To benefit from the value of anything, one has to own something. In the case of Steem, you have to have some Steem and if one wants to benefit from Steem but the process one has doesn't factor in owning Steem, the process now and the future desires are not aligned. Sure, you can earn Steem at any point and you can buy Steem at any point but, both of these things take invest meet and skill and, the first relies heavily on pleasing other people and is subject to instantaneous and dynamic change.
A process has to factor environmental change in too and this means that dive everything can't be known, the process has to be flexible. This is something I love about Steem Power, it flexes to the system, it can be shifted quickly, redirected, repurposed. One day it could support an application, the next an artist.
Versatility of investment is something that people rarely talk (if ever) about. Those who own stocks, how fast and at what cost can you switch your capital? For those who invest into startups, when do you expect a return on investment?
I see Steem as a startup where it's success relies on many people doing what they want with Steem being no more than the architectural framework built upon. It is more akin to the internet itself than a site on the internet. What it is doing hasn't been done before and what it could do has never been seen before.
I enjoy and find value in being part of the process, and one day, the process may lead to value of other kinds too and as I believe, much more than purely economic. Going long on Steem for me is only possible because my personal process in the real world allows it. The work I put in on Steem is not separate from the work on Steem, all are parts of and affect my life. My Steem investment isn't mature enough to draw upon yet, just like any startup in its infancy.
Everyone with an account has a Steem startup, how they manage it, the investment and work they put in and how the test of their lives operate means the dynamics of each can vary greatly now. As will the results in the future.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
(posted from phone)