The value of a lo-fi voice

It is funny what a little background knowledge can provide for a content producer and how difficult simple things can be without. Today I was developing some text at work but the speed of production felt like I was going backwards as I am accustomed to being able to think through, formulate and create relatively large volumes of text quickly.

But it wasn't always the case, in fact, writing is quite new to me and when I began a little over two years ago, it took a painstakingly long time to get thoughts out of my head and fashion them into something mildly comprehensible. A lot of people who struggle to write seen to figure it is an innate ability, a skill one is born with.

I think what often happens is that when someone finds something difficult that another finds easy, they want to protect themselves with excuses and say, "they can do it because such and such while I can't because of such and such" without acknowledging that it could just come down to work put in, investment in learning and understanding or, a willingness to try.

Lots of limitations are set by an unwillingness to try, I know that I have reduced my potential enormously as a result of not facing the various fears of trying and the potential failure or looking stupid in the attempt.

I still suffer from this to some degree in various areas but I am learning how to let go of my own expectations of how I am meant to be. It is good to live up to personal standards until those standards get in the way of being ones best and to be one's best, trying and the subsequent failure that will often accompany it is a must.

I think digital social media has warped our sense of what is appropriate to try as we have been encouraged to present our best but, the landscape is littered with people better than us. There is a world of content creators to choose from and much of the content is freely available, what makes your addition so unique, so valuable?

This is the power of community and relationship though as under healthy social constructs, we can be encouraged to try, even if not rewarded for our effort. Steem is becoming much more like a group of friends who support each other to try and improve without the concern of the conglomerate polish and multi-million dollar marketing campaigns to support the algorithm push into the public eye line.

In time it will be this lo-fi and organic approach that will be the stickiest factor of Steem as it will mean that anyone can give it a go and not feel out of place. I remember my personal experience of posting on Steem the first few times, I was nervous and, I had no idea how it would be received as at that time, I didn't know of any others producing similar content.

I am quite interested in human behaviour and the one I have the most experience with is my own. Watching my own development over time has given me insight that has changed the way I train people and made me recognise how short I had fallen up until that point through my own lack of knowledge and insight.

This is the thing when it comes to being able to produce content too isn't it? Having insight into needs, processes, incentives, mechanics, influences and of course, the people who create a dynamic flow of movement throughout helps guide the topics, approach and drives deeper and more practical personal understanding.

Perhaps those who struggle with producing content consistently have the issue because they stay too narrowly focused or, omit factors that influence their position. It is kind of like setting up a content echo chamber where on time, the reverberation silences instead of expands organically into a different kind of sound completely.

On Steem there is a tagline Your voice is worth something but where I feel many people struggle is that they concentrate on the value of before they have even found their voice. Voices change over time, they shift tone and the words they say or sing can move dramatically.

Finding your voice is an ongoing process of self-discovery and never need end. It takes constant work and practice and continual experimentation. Your voice may be worth something but if you do not understand or control its sound, where is the value held?

It may be lo-fi, but when it comes to interesting content, on Steem is where it is at as it returns the voice to the individual and says;

Try

 
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
_{(posted from phone)}