Another month went by, how time flew. It feels like just yesterday we were in January making new year resolutions, and in just a twinkling of an eye we are already done with the first quarter of the year. How time flies!
I did write my Hive and inleo progress report back in March where I indicated some problems that prevented me from making any reasonable progress on my Hive growth. Nothing has changed yet. My April progress report won't be different from that of March if not worse.
My growth objective has never been complex: gain a few followers each month, post every day, make and engage in at least 50 threads every day, and power up Leo in the process. Easy daily routines that lead to goal realization. However, when you get lax or fall behind in consistency, those easy tasks become an illusion.
Just as in the month of March, I was in a mad haze for money in the month of April, looking and seeking new channels of income and ideas for making money that never materialized. Sometimes it seems like not having enough money to survive can be the greatest distraction to success. Though a few of us might be driven to work harder to earn more money under such circumstances, looking for a new avenue for easy money outside of what is tried and proven is a total waste of time. That's one valuable lesson my experience this month has taught me.
With all that befell me, my enthusiasm towards Hive was at a new low in April. It was always a struggle for me to post on thread daily. My activity level fell off significantly except for occasional showing up to add one or two threads and post. I could claim that I managed to keep a daily posting streak, whereas in fact, I was just going through the motions. To me, it feels more and more like I'm doing the bare minimum so that the box can be checked which does not serve the people who work to make our community flourish.
The curation upvotes that I got were a minor silver lining. The Inleo community has been highly supportive of my posts and engaged actively with my content. But inside, I felt I was doing so much less than what I needed to be doing back. Active participation is not about posting, it is to be actively engaged, to actually contribute, and to participate.
Life outside of Hive was not straightforward. Stress within the family escalated and created incessant distraction. The personal life requires so much attention that it has a negative impact online. The family problems I had to endure made me more distant from Hive and inleo, and it took more effort on my part to ensure that I show up every day to help the community with the level of participation it needed.
This affected everything. The absence from the community was noticeable. The making of threads that I was used to doing regularly became less frequent and shorter. The social aspect of Inleo, the sharing of posts, caring and interacting all dropped off at the same time as I tried to manage my commitments and personal problems.
Difficult months possess this unique quality of teaching what a person is really made of. Regardless of how life was going, I simply showed up. Every single day was used to write blog posts. If there was an opportunity to engage in the community, I took it. I did not receive the results that I had desired, but at least I persisted with trying.
Reflecting on April, I am reminded that growth is not always a linear progression of numbers and success. Growth is also surviving the storm. Progress is accepting one's failures, learning from them, and being courageous enough to continue moving forward.
The Inleo community appreciates real faces rather than lifeless mask-wearing. That is exactly why I share these problems in the first place, since that is what really gives me that drive and this is a positive community, which is why I can't help but say my opinion.
Well, it's very hard to go through these phases of hardship; I won't apologize or deny anything. I just attempt to be honest. What is reassuring is that we all do, in fact, continue to breathe, to write, to engage in this community. Within these frameworks, Inleo and Hive support many people, which carries them through difficult times.
It is truly difficult not to be thankful at having the opportunity to do something as basic as participate in this exercise. So here I sit writing this report. I fight along so very hard, yet here I am and still have hope. April had not been that I had hoped for, but sure enough, I learned. Sometimes that is enough. What it means to be on Inleo is that there is always an opportunity to give and belong to the community, regardless of whether yesterday was good or bad.
Yet the struggle continues because assistance is always set in front of us. That's the grace of this community, each day is a fresh start. As we forge ahead, here's to re-engagement, to the perpetually present Inleo spirit, and lastly to my better days ahead.
