Should it be easier to Steem?

I post a lot and most of what I post is from my experience and journey through life. It is personal, yet I think that a lot of it has value for others. Shared experiences, learning from mistakes, hearing different perspectives and questioning a little deeper.

When I post, I feel unsure as to whether I should put myself out there, why would anyone care? Why does that even matter? I am not a shy person but definitely not part of the selfie generation where every moment is curated and positioned at the perfect angle. Where 'personal branding' takes precedence over 'personal living'.

There is very little performance in me. I am not a spotlight grabber or attention seeker. Over the years I have even further reduced my need for acceptance from others and as a result, do not present myself with the polish many do, or the brazen confidence many do. At times, I wish I could.

Sometimes, I feel that I have been born at the wrong stage of history past or future. Like I don't completely fit in. The questions I ask are uncomfortable for many, my approach off-putting. I praise hard work often, not the successful avoidance of it. And a lot of the time, I feel like that is what is happening. People want to work less, while I am trying to work more.

People on Instagram sharing in the hope some company will ask them to promote their wares, Facebook where they post their life highlights to brag and lowlights to garner sympathy. Twitter chained rants proving to the world that their voice is worthy of a retweet. Very few are honest in their approach to presenting their life. Everyone is in it for something, even if that something is notoriety.

This makes me uncomfortable as I too am part of this system in many ways. I am not above it and by many people's standards I am well below it as if one is not trying to maximize their wealth to effort ratio, they are wasting their time. When content quality and value to the community are mentioned, it is to feed back into the wealth creation algorithms. Give them what they want, because what they want is valuable and therefore important.

But this can spiral out of control. Feeding desires leads to high demand and high returns but will also skew what is of value. If it is only a financial gain or saving, what happens to all of the value in other content, other activities? What happens to us when we spend so much time trying to give others what they desire we step away from what is important to us?

Soon, no one is interested in an ugly reality, even though it may be pure, untainted by Photoshop, uncleansed, untrimmed, dirty and raw. Honest. True.

So I will take this role from time to time personally. I will search my ugly and face what I come across. Investigate both sides of the distribution. I will post as honestly as I can with all the integrity I have. And even though many may look past, discard or disagree, I will continue as what I see of value in the future is things that develop us to be stronger, faster, self-reliant, independent and unique.

I cannot give anyone a skill, convince anyone to join along for the ride or stop them from criticizing the approach. All I can do is provide my view, discuss it with those interested and the rest is up to them.

Steem presents several opportunities to me of personal value:

• I can learn how to put myself out there
• I can develop my thoughts through my content
• I can practice communication skills, a lifelong process
• I can get a temperature of what is going on in the world minus media input
• I can collaborate with others and learn from highly varied sources
• I can build a deeper understanding of myself
• I can provide support to someone in need in various ways
• I can be part of developing a platform I see valuable for the future in many ways
• I can reduce my social media footprint while increasing my quality output
• I can practice many skills that have become rusty
• I can get direct feedback and gauge my own
• I can possibly make a little money on the side
• I can invest, something I have never felt I had the chance to do earlier
• I can see beauty from other perspectives
• I can see a lot of ugliness too

There are many I am missing but overall, what I mean is for me, Steem is a chance to develop myself and help others reach their goals too. Maybe even, make the world a little brighter.

It is not easy to put myself out there and none of this comes naturally. Although what I write flows out of me and the ideas come fast and furiously, I have to invest heavily to get it coherent and onto the page in an attempt to express it well and clearly. I fail quite often at this I am sure.

In no way is this easy, but very little of true value is.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]