Steem journey: Reflecting on the path so far

I haven't done one of these for a while so I think it is time to have a look at some of my account numbers. The reason I do these is to give myself a picture of how I am progressing and as a reminder of how far I have come. Igenerally look at various numbers and in the past it has been my powering up, my comments or how many words I type per week in posts which, is a lot.

A couple days ago though, @fknmayhem hit a milestone on @arcange's Steemitboard website and received a badge that he had been coveting, the Monthly Author badge which is for posting every day of the month. He of course set himself guidelines as in, no shitposts to achieve this feat and he managed it well.

These rewards are actually arbitrary but as humans are hardwired for progression, they can feed our endorphins and compel us to behave in certain ways. This is why gamification has entered the lexicon of the attention economy and why so many people waste spend their time achieving in games where not much of worth is actually achieved. Depending how you look at it, gamification is a killer of opportunity or, a driver.

For me, I don' care about the badges themselves but, they are handy indicators when looking retrospectively at where I have come from and what it has taken for me to get to this point. I don't need to advertise this of course as it helps me without telling you but, perhaps today it will give some people some insight into some of the work required to get to where I am. Before we begin with the work, here is a snapshot of where I am.

I joined January 29th, 2017 which is 554 days including today. So as you can see, I have almost 2000 posts and over 11000 comments and am averaging just over 10 SP per post. that sounds a lot but I was also here for 7 cent Steem days so my 50 cent posts gathered Steem also and, I was going at 100% power up for most of my time here.

This has left me with 20,460 Steem earned and my wallet holds almost 22,600 Steem. It is higher because I have bought a few hundred euros worth but, have also traded SBD for Steem and powered it up plus traded up for more Steem on exchanges. By far, Steem is my largest holding but I have still managed to diversify somewhat and hold several coins to balance some risk. I am still yet to use even one cent of any crypto to purchase in the real world.

Steem power is the influence in the system and for me, I am trying to get myself into a position that I can both help others and take advantage of broadening and increasing numbers of revenue streams to come. There is more ways than just posting, curation and delegation to earn and airdrops and SMTs are going to bring more again. Plus, who knows what else will arrive.

I have a tough time trading Steem on exchanges psychologically as I know that Steem i a holders dream as not only can it be held, it can earn while being held. It can earn without having to sell which is a massive advantage to Steem and one I wish more people would take advantage of as it would both improve their earnings and, help others in the system also. To each their own though and the sellers now who keep Steem prices low means that holders can gather some extra Steem for the future. There are risks in holding but the potential returns if this little Steem project works out has a very high ceiling.

But, let's look at something else from @arcange's numbers as looking at the badges gives an indication as to what it has taken to hold the resources I do.

The 'Daily Author' means posting 4 core posts in a day and I have reached this 275 times. This of course doesn't account for the days I went over the 4 posts as occasionally depending on situations, I have gone to 6 or so. Like @fknmayhem, I am not one to shitpost (subjective view of course) often, if at all. For me, I do try to always bring something of value to the community.

The 'Weekly Author' is a post for every day of the week and I have 70 of these. Since I have started, there has been 79 weeks so in all of that time, I have only missed posting daily in 9 of those weeks. That is quite a lot of consistency and even for me, I find this quite incredible. People often struggle to post weekly which is something I don't really understand unless either extenuating circumstances like illness or, just not a great deal of motivation. Again, to each their own.

The last one, 'Monthly Author' is posting every day of a month which is the one @fknmayhem received. I have 15 of these out of a possible 18 so far. This means that the 9 weeks where I didn't get the weekly author badge, all appeared in the same 3 month period. I find this quite interesting and I am pretty sure that I know when and why that was. It was at the start of my journey when I was under a great deal of pressure from life (ill daughter and wife) and, didn't understand the potential of Steem. Once I learned, there has been no turning back nor, slowing down and at least for now, I will continue this path.

Two other metrics I will mention here are these:

---

 

This is my upvote given to upvotes received ratio. 35,686:138,698 which is approximately 1:4 and I have given those 35,000 upvotes manually on posts and in comments. Again, I find this quite incredible considering other metrics. I think this is a healthy ratio but, it is hard to say.

Although these particular numbers aren't of great use and the badges are relatively meaningless, keeping some kind of track and building some kind of image of how one is progressing across time can help discover various risks and opportunities. It is very, very, very easy to look at the size of someone's wallet and the upvotes they get without looking at the amount of work it has taken to get them to that position. It is easy to pass judgement or come up with excuses why one couldn't do similar or put in the work but, it is unfair to negate another's work because you didn't have the possibility or will to work as much.

What I find is that even though the blockchain holds all of the information and is largely transparent, people look at the surface levels and think that they know the journey of another but what they know is their perspective and, their own strengths or failures.

I am a firm believer in lead by example even though I do not consider myself a leader. When it comes to effort invested, I think that even though the content might not be to everyone's particular tastes, the energy put in is apparent. If people found their own interest areas and put in the same level of work, would they get the same results? Who knows but, to find out one must do the work before the reward and, there is always risk involved as there are no guarantees in this life at all.

If you want to visit http://steemitboard.com/welcome.html and have a look at some of your own numbers, if you find something interesting in the badges, please post a picture in the comments section and add a few words about your own journey, and I will upvote them as I can.

There are many areas of this post that require expansion and I will get to them at some point, I am certain.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

Thanks to @fknmayhem for being a friend and @arcange for all of the services provided.