Hello Hive! I know the past year has been terrible for a lot of us because of the pandemic, but like how I say it in my previous post on How To Find Meaning in Suffering:
Every one of us is carrying our own burdens and going through our own suffering. But this does not mean that the world is full of suffering. There is still so much more out there, so much space for things in life other than suffering.
So in this post, I am declaring that the past year has been wonderful! Wonderful, because it has been one year since I joined Hive! Honestly, it's one of the best decisions I have made. Writing has always been one of my passions, and I couldn't believe I'd find a platform where I can express myself so freely and creatively.
In this post, I'd like to share the highlights of my first year in Hive with you. These moments were quite significant because they made my first year so wonderful.
That time I published my Introduction Post
I have known Kim (@ybanezkim26) for such a long time, and it baffles me why I didn't join Steemit (the old platform) before. Maybe because I was so preoccupied with a lot of things (or with someone 😅). Even when I was back to spending more time with Kim and my other friends, I still did not think of joining. The idea of the platform was just so complicated and unfamiliar.
Fast forward to the pandemic, and during the 3rd quarter of the year, it felt like I had so much time in my hands. I would do yoga every morning and work out in the afternoon. I had multiple online classes and was writing a research article. I even started a consulting job.
During that time, I finally reached out to Kim and asked him how to create an account. What added to my interest was seeing a friend, @kayceeports2020, share her Hive articles on her social media. Reading her posts was fun. My Medium blog was a bit serious, and it appealed to me to be able to write a blog that was like a social media post.
I made my account on August 6, 2020, and it took me three weeks (August 25, 2020) before I was able to publish my Introduction Post. I really enjoyed writing that post. It showcased the things that I want in life and the things that I wanted to achieve. I made it unique by asking the question:
And it was a hit! I didn't expect it to be so well-received. They said my post was on the trending page. I did not really know what that meant, but it sounded good. And there were so many comments! The people were so welcoming and helpful. The experience from my Introduction Post was very positive, that I was motivated to continue on this platform.
That time I made my Hive Vision and Goals
The next post I wrote was a travel blog about Bantayan Island, one of my favorite beach destinations in Cebu, Philippines. I discovered that I really like writing travel blogs. I posted more travel blogs, and I also got to know more people on the platform. By this time, our Hive community in Cebu was coming together. We have a group chat in Messenger. The people are very supportive, and the group chat was a big help for the new users who had questions.
One of the things that piqued my interest during my first months was "Powering Up." It kept appearing on my feed. I learned more about it, and it got me thinking about the future. Yes, I joined Hive because I liked writing, but I wanted to visualize my future here. I did a visualization exercise to think about what Hive would mean to me after a few years. With that visualization, I was able to write down my Hive Vision and Goals.
To be honest, I am quite embarrassed to show my Hive Goals because I haven't been able to revisit them for several months now. Nevertheless, I will take this opportunity to assess where I'm at with my goals and rethink whether they are still relevant and achievable for me. Here they are:
GOAL 1: Be a user who has posted and continues to post quality content.
Measure/s and Timeline:
- Write at least 1 article per week (or 100 articles in 2 years) about travel, personal development, and interesting things that I am passionate about.
GOAL 2: Be an engaging and influential user.
Measure/s and Timeline:
- Be a Dolphin (have at least 5,000 HP) in 3 years.
- Engage (read/reply) with all the comments on my posts
- Engage (read/upvote/comment) with the articles of the people I follow at least once a day
- Power up at least 100 HP every month
- Have at least 1000 followers in 3 years by following and engaging with at least 7 new accounts per week so that they will be encouraged to follow back.
GOAL 3: Create a community about Personal Development and Learning.
Measure/s and Timeline:
- Post articles about personal development at least once a month.
- Reach out to other authors to collaborate.
- Launch a community about personal development and learning in 1 year.
For Goal 1, I have always strived to post only quality content from things I'm interested in and passionate about. This post would be my 36th article. In terms of my measure, posting at least 1 article per week has proven to be quite difficult, especially now that I have several engagements. Still, I will take note of my target and arrange my time to produce one article per week.
I was quite ambitious when I wrote my measures for Goal 2. I haven't powered up for months, and I'm not quite sure if I'll reach 1,000 followers in 3 years. But that doesn't mean I'll give up. I will now be powering at least 100 HP starting October 1st. I will also intentionally follow more authors whose content interests me.
For Goal 3, I am excited to launch my community page on Personal Development. I know it's still bare, but I have so many plans for it. I have been publishing Personal Development posts, and soon, I will be posting them on my own led community! I have stumbled upon authors whose posts, I think, will fit just right in.
I think I'll be reformulating my Hive Goals or do another Visualization for my Hive Vision. Of course, I'll be writing about it in the future.
For Part Two
I am writing this Cake Day post in multiple parts because I don't want this post to be too long and because I have so much more ideas about my Cake Day that I want to write about. For Part Two of this post, I will be sharing about:
- That time I realized everything was content
- That time HIVE was $1
- That time I became a curator
And that's it for now. I can't believe it's already been a year since I joined. I've met so many people here and written articles that are close to my heart. Thank you so much for being with me on my Hive journey, and I hope we get to interact more with each other.
See you in the next post. Cheers!
