Three Year Streak Continues

Where does the damn time go?!

I was getting a post written the other day, and getting it scheduled when I realized what the day was. December 27th was where I was originally going to post it.. but then it dawned on me. That is my Hive posting anniversary! Three freaking years! Damn! LOL

Three years of getting something written and committed to the blockchain is one hell of a feat for me. Back when I started, I didn't write a formal "post" for many weeks, I think it was about 6 weeks or so until I finally published my first "post" on the blockchain. I was around commenting plenty and trying to get the ropes learned and things under my belt so I didn't really pay much attention to the posting aspect of it. I was commenting on quite a lot of things, some of those comments are not ones that I look back on and think were a really good example of what I should be doing to the blockchain, given how the permanent state of the chain is but we have to move on.

I was not really one to post a whole lot. I would drop one here and there, I attempted to do a few series like Kombucha reviews was one. Man that sounds like such a douchebag thing hahaha but that's what we do. We try to figure out, feel things out, and what we do and are trying to do in a place like this. I found a little bit of a niche with my enjoyment of DIY stuff like doing my car maintenance, building things for my house, fixing things and just overall home repair stuff. That was a pretty good path for me but it wasn't anything that would be consistent enough to consider posting multiple times a week, never mind every day.

I made a few attempts at posting daily and eventually made it to like 6 days before I fell off the wagon and couldn't solidify a week. I was annoyed because I wanted to challenge myself but I also wanted to write more to get the creative juices flowing. One day after Christmas, December 27th 2020, I said fuck it this is going to be the day. I published a post but what I did that really revolutionized it for me, is that I went and wrote 2 more posts and scheduled those posts for subsequent days! I had known people would schedule posts but I never really tried it myself up until that point. Once I did that though, I was hooked!

I know there are some that think scheduling posts is a bunch of horse shit, but for me, it allows me to write and do the things that I want to do when I have the time or energy to do them, and get them scheduled. I could certainly publish multiple posts per day but then I would completely run out of content and not be able to maintain a posting streak. That wasn't going to work out for me so I made the determination to write multiple times per week and get the posts scheduled, trying to keep them at least one day in advance that way I can write with a little bit less "stress" of getting it put out. I think that's how my brain works, I can plan and execute things in an ordered fashion for the future but when it comes to writing a post that I have to publish the same day, I falter a bit.

I've certainly learned a lot in this time that I've committed a post to the chain every day for 3 years and it's been quite a remarkable thing. One of the most important things that I have gained is an ability to have actual catharsis of my thoughts. I think that we all struggle with synthesizing information these days, with the multitude of things that we are exposed to in a given day. Our brain is overloaded! With writing though, we are able to take our thoughts and churn them out into something that makes sense for us and for those who are interested enough to read them.

I think, like Taraz, one of the things that I write for is the eventual future where one day I can show my son this information if the blockchain is still operational and say "here is your dad" essentially. It's the most consistent thing I've done besides my marriage and work life, and it's pretty eye opening for me for sure. I incredibly value the time and effort I've put into the posts that I publish on here. I don't do the 75 word pieces of shit that many do, some of it is acceptable and cool but that's not my style. I try to make sure that my posts have a little bit of my personality and flavor in them, and are a minimum of 500 words. If I was better at SQL for Hive I would be able to organize my posts over the past 3 years and try to get an average because often times I go over 500, not so much 2,000 like some beasts do like Edicted, but 800-1000 are usually where I end up. Giving it an average of 700 words, I've potentially written 766,800 words onto the blockchain in posts alone. That's pretty fucking wild lol.

I am committing to get to 5 years of posting every day, so that is 2 more years. I think I will reevaluate it at that point and see if I want to continue to do it every day or scale it back. I suspect I may continue for another period of time but who knows. I just know that I'm enjoying the ability to write some words and get it out there, with a little bit of rewards that get reinvested into the platform every single day.

I know this will pay off in the long run!