Consistency is Key

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead. - Aldous Huxley

Greetings Steemians,

I've been pondering many aspects of Steem lately, and one aspect that I think is pretty important is consistency. I've talked about this before, but I also have not maintained great consistency so I'm bringing it up again.

Managing account growth, supporting other users, conceptualizing the future of Steem, and what it means now. If my prediction is to come true, (Which I'm still very confident it will.) those of us who have remained working hard on this blockchain are going to be in a nice position in the future.

My prediction isn't specific numbers, I'm not placing a future value on Steem, I simply believe it is going to be a success in the social media realm, primarily because of where I think crypto as a whole is headed. (not to mention the growing frustrations of censorship and mishandled private information that is so prevalent right now with mainstream social media.)

Sometimes I get a little down on myself if I don't maintain consistency, and I was searching for some enlightening quote about consistency when Aldous Huxley's quote caught my eye.

I had to laugh a bit, because a common narrative associated to success with anything is consistency is key.

I don't disagree with this, but I also think time management, realistic expectation(s), and finding a good comfort zone (balance) is much more important than just simply grinding. Why?

This is a measure of personal values. Do you value quality over quantity?

I do, and so it is not easy for me to come up with a post everyday. Some days I'm just not feeling it, I don't have anything that is really itching to being composed, and if I am to be fair with myself, this is ok..

This is a creative/expressive outlet for me, and I don't want to bring trash to the table. I've definitely made shit posts before, and it's likely there will be more in the future, but the key point is I try my best, and so if 9 out of 10 of my posts are decent quality and I feel pleased with my efforts, then it's perfectly ok.

This quote by Aldous Huxley helped me a little with perspective.

It made me laugh because it's really very true. How much is consistent in nature? The ups and downs I've had with my house plants is astonishing. The Graptosedum Bronze is out of control (in a great way!) right now. It's exploding in growth! I am so excited I just want to take a ton of pictures and make posts about it, but I am going to wait, because I want you all to be surprised by the difference in such short time.

What is odd is for some reason I expected this plant would have the hardest time over the winter, and it's thriving, loving the environment I'm providing. It's doing better than it was over the summer on a window sill!

At one point it was having a tough time however, and so my consistency with how I was caring for it needed change! Had I remained consistent it would have died or become sickly.

In terms of posting, sometimes it's good to just start with an idea and see where it goes. (This works good for me sometimes.) Like with this post, I had an idea of what I was going to write, but my perspective shifted a little with this quote. Yes I'm still committed to being consistent to the best of my abilities, but reading this helped me not be so hard on myself about it.

I have some plans developing for the new year. More ideas for gardening, I want to get more consistent with my guitar again, and I'm planning some activities with my oldest son which I'm super excited about.

These things will help me produce content, but producing content is not the reason behind my plans, and if I allow myself to become stressed over Steem, then I will be hindered with my productivity elsewhere.

It all makes sense to me anyway.

So I guess this is kind of me talking about my new year resolution(s). (a little late but oh well!) I like to keep my resolutions pretty simple, and for me.. I think about why resolutions fail so much. I don't have a great answer, other than maybe many people are just "band wagon" resolut-ing. (I didn't find evidence that this is actually a word, but I think it should be.)

So I'm really just planning to work harder while not being hard on myself if things don't go the way I want them to.