With the last day of 2019 looming, everyone is looking toward 2020 with the fresh hope of a single man at the start of a night out, wishing to take home the prettiest girl at the bar. Many are going to end up drunk and alone - again. I do not have this problem of course, because I always go home with the prettiest girl, as she is the one I married. Design your life for successful living.
I have failed at most other aspects of what would be considered successful living, but I am looking to change that track record and this requires planting seeds that can support the reap what you sow, something that often is framed as a negative to explain poor outcomes, like karma. But, the proverb works in both directions, with the positive outcomes a consequence of the right actions - and a little luck.
I think that on and within Steem I have performed many of the right actions and been lucky to meet people along the way. The thing with the reaping is, the sowing has to be done beforehand, something many people forget. Work before play is too often the exception these days, not the rule.
Once upon a time however, it was the opposite, which is why earlier generations were far less financially indebted than nowadays, as they didn't spend what they didn't have and in many cases, there wasn't even the opportunity. Now though, there are far more things to spend income on and parting with income is increasingly easy.
It is far easier to get into debt than stay out of it and the debt cycle is driven by our own desires, influenced by the way the consumer world has been designed. No one forces us to buy a new television or subscribe to YouTube, no one forces a cigarette or drink into our hand, no one says we should take a loan to the limits of what we can afford while interest rates are the lowest they have been. That is on us. We are the consumers, we are the ones who make the decisions on what we consume. Though the nudges from those who benefit from our consumption are well targeted for sure.
For many, it is a bitter pill to swallow that the position we inhabit in life is to a high degree our own fault and it is much easier to search for external aspects to blame. I find to what may be an increasing degree that people are spending less time in the aspects of their life they can control or perhaps influence, and more in where they have no power whatsoever.
I find that a lot of the online conversation is of the latter type where there is very little that can be personally accomplished other than participate in the disconnected conversation as if it really matters. The problem is that the things that do actually matter and are within our control or able to be influenced go on ignored and attention starved.
One of the things that I like on Steem for example is that there is discussion about economics at both the macro and micro level in many ways, with many people comfortable enough to share their personal experience and of high importance, their questions. Personal finance is a conversation that has been taken out of a lot of the non-intimate relationships as something that is tasteless.
I find this interesting considering that we have been culturally censored from discussing something that has such a large impact and contains pain points for many people, while at the same time discussing the economics of countries spending and debt in the trillions. We have very little possibility to influence one, and a very high potential for the other - yet we spend more attention on the side that is out of our locus of control.
I think that this has been part of the reason that I have done okay on Steem overall, as I spend my time in areas that I can control, content creation, commenting and interaction, curation and the areas that motivate me. I reckon that if I had lived my earlier life doing the same, I would be in a significantly different position now. I am not sure if it would be better, but different.
Our active attention is the most valuable resource we have to invest as it is this that allows us to learn and build skills, as well as identify opportunities. I work under the assumption that even though I do my best, most of the good opportunities that come my way are going to pass by my nose unnoticed, or if I do identify them, I won't have the resources to invest in at that time.
Everyone hopes to buy low, but you have to have something to buy with at that time. When I came to Steem I didn't know enough to buy, but even if I had, I wouldn't have had the economic availability to do so due to other life circumstances. What I did have however are the resources within my control - experience, a keyboard, a brain.
Many say there is no such thing as "proof of brain" on Steem and while I do not think it is as stated, intelligence definitely plays a role in outcomes. This isn't just IQ of course, as there are plenty of very smart people who have failed miserably to accomplish their goals on Steem. What the intelligence does factor is how well people know and apply their resources to build an experience for themselves that they enjoy, and also for their audience.
This isn't easy as while everyone believes they have skills, intelligence and handle them both well, not everyone is able to go home with the prettiest girl in the bar. And, due to being spoiled for selection, the hurdles set can be very high, which can already thin the herd. This is much worse on other platforms as getting traction in an environment that has hundreds of millions of daily contributors can be enormously hard work - and most people will never have what it takes.
I know that I don't. At least, I don't on the platforms that have already been saturated and where the bandwagon is overflowing. It would be a waste of my resources to even attempt it as I would never have enough to give. But, I do have the resources to be an early time and effort investor into a yet to be defined and wide open platform with a highly uncertain future with the possibility of a highly positive asymmetrical return on investment.
This is where I choose to plant my seeds for the future, but like the tree that the almond came from, it doesn't bear return immediately and it needs to be nurtured to fruition. Investing into this kind of plant takes the stamina to participate and the patience to wait as it grows. For me, I would also say that long-term, it also takes some level of personal integrity to be authentic to oneself, otherwise the motivation to continue fades fast.
I wonder, if we all reaped what we have sown here on Steem, how many would be happy with the outcome.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
