Today's anniversary has me wound up quite a bit, I will start with that. I want to get along with my friends, but I also don't want those friends to be brainless drones that follow the national narrative for small doses of brain chemicals that makes them feel like they are doing and saying the right things with approval from the general consensus.

It's easy agreeing with the majority, the tough part is disagreeing with them without being the guy everyone rolls their eyes at.

Whew

Cat picture for calming help:

That being said, some things have been pickin' at the scab for me lately, especially on this platform. Look, I have been guilty of it, complaining about the whales, about the economics, feeling undervalued. In a way that is kind of a metaphor for life, right? I feel when things are bothering us we tend to lash out at totally unrelated things.

Content Creation

I never "created" content for others to consume until I started on Steem. Since then, I have learned A LOT (I just haven't always applied them). Social media presence, being part of a community, building relationships and keeping them together, making daily content, putting a community ahead of (sometimes) your own well being in the hopes your content might be valued and worth the time you put in.

Then we burn ourselves out. We see our work, we see our rewards, we put 2 and 2 together and realize it isn't worth it.

So - we either quit or keep going while realizing the focus and the reason you started doing it in the first place: your own satisfaction and (hopefully) a wallet full of "appreciation".

Community and Expecations.

You either think you are going to live off your content creation or you don't lie to yourself. You either think you are going to easily live off what you will make while doing it, or realize that you will be lucky to supplement your costs and time.

So we go through the steps of what is expected and required of us to fulfill these ends. We join discords, we share, upvote, like, comment, share, resteem, encourage and offer constructive criticisms of your peers in an effort to make your presence known. Some do this instinctfully, others have to learn it. Either way, it is part of the "grind" in working your way up the ladder of admiration and appreciation. Further still, some do it as a means to an end while others just do it because it is natural to be a helpful and thoughtful person.

Fact is: If you want to be rewarded from a community you MUST FIRST BE PART OF THE COMMUNITY! No half-ass, insincere efforts are going to make a difference, you have to step out of your comfort zone and be willing to invest your time into things that will not directly have an influence over the amount you will be rewarded. Your reward will be friendship, a sense of belonging, a reputation that is built in sincerity and honesty of having a willingness to help. If you are lucky, that might also add up to being financially rewarded.

I have seen THOUSANDS of "content creators" make a splash and flip the bird when they don't get what they think they deserve, and it IS NOT just a Steem issue (as much as we would like to think it is, sometimes). Expectations are too high, the fruit seems to be low-hanging, and we think the time and effort we put in will be given back ten-fold like no one else ever thought of it.

Success is hard. Community building is hard. Life is hard. Steem is hard. Content creation is hard.

You know what isn't? Being a sincere and genuine human being that wants to share interesting, insightful, beautiful, funny, and great things. The trick is being someone that people want to hear about it from and it being in an easy-to-absorb way doesn't hurt, either.

We're all in this together. Keep trying, keep improving, keep being you.