As much as I enjoy taking a break from Steemit on the weekends and just spending time with my family, it is sometimes hard to get caught up on Monday.

This weekend was pretty uneventful for the most part. @mrsbozz and I moved around our living room so we can have a place to put our Christmas tree. Who knows when we will get that up, maybe December 22nd?

Just having our dog Jovi, Christmas days isn't as big of a thing as it probably is for some families. When one of us wants something we simply go and buy it for the other one. The only presents under our tree are usually the ones that go to our nieces and nephews.

You can see why putting the tree up just to take it down is really not that much of a priority for us. There are some years we have discussed not even having a tree.

I got to watch my one niece play basketball again this weekend. It is pretty cool because as an elementary student she gets to play basketball in the same gym where @mrsbozz played High School basketball and volleyball.

They ended up losing the game, but some of the things we noticed they needed to work on last game were much improved this time. @mrsbozz's brother is the coach so I know he will get them playing great in no time!

We did some more experimentation in our Instant Pot again this weekend as well. I didn't get any pictures, but I think we plan on using it this week for a dinner or two, so I will try to do better. I promise!

Given all of the excitement that has happened in the past week with Steemit, I have been thinking a lot about it lately.

Specifically my mind has been focusing on engagement a lot. There was a time that I thought that growing your account was a sure fire way to get more followers and in turn upvotes on Steemit.

At one time that may have been the case, but I guess I am not seeing it as much lately. I feel like I get a decent amount of comments on my posts, I don't feel like it has really increased since I purchased some Steem and powered it up though.

There are several dolphins that I find myself engaging with quite frequently on Steemit. I frequently visit their blogs commenting and upvoting pretty much every post they write. Honestly, most of them I probably started doing it in hopes that they would reciprocate. As time passed though, I find myself actually enjoying their posts and although my interaction in the past with them was always genuine, it seems deeper now.

Given some mathematical laws and principals that I don't really know, it can be assumed that eventually the appreciation would be returned. I am finding though that is rare if ever the case.

I get it to some degree, dolphins probably have a pretty significant number of followers and therefore a lot of love to try and give out.

I can relate to that just being a minnow. There are many posts I miss or just can't get to because of time constraints.

Sometimes when I really get thinking about it I start to question the quality of my own posts. I have a feeling I am not the only one that does this either.

I think that can be very dangerous though. The minute you start doubting yourself you are just pushing yourself one step closer to quitting. I have a feeling far too many great Steemians have probably given up because they thought their content wasn't good enough.

We need to change this, and I am not really sure how. As much as so many people don't agree with the idea of circle jerk voting, I would suggest that some of that just happens naturally. As you interact with other users circles of friends and circles with similar interests form.

I really think we should look at how to expand those circles as opposed to outright condemming them. Of course, the upvote circles that deal with mindless spam content can go away forever as far as I am concerned :)

I really wish I had answers for some of the questions I am asking. It would really make me feel better about the future of a lot of people here on Steemit. Hopefully with the implementation of @steeveapp, some of those hidden gems will start to see the light of day more.

I know a lot of people say (especially in these times) that you shouldn't focus on the rewards. Being upfront though, I say it's hard not to. The truth is, if it weren't for some perks I get from delegating, some shares I have with @steembasicincome, and the free upvotes I get from posting with @esteem, my posts don't make much more than they did when I was a plankton. In many cases they make even less (which I assume can be attributed to the price decline).

That's just sad to me. With close to a year on the platform now, some of my own money invested and powered up, a handful of @curie's, and being a member of some really great communities, I guess I expected more.

Don't get me wrong, I am not going anywhere, but right now especially, I think we all need to take a overhead view of Steemit in general as well as our place here. Where are we at? Where do we want to be? How can we get there? How can we help others get from where they are to where they want to be?

Steemit is a community after all, and like most communities it grows and it evolves. Are we going to grow and evolve with it or try to keep doing things the old way and lose members in the process?

Sorry if this was too much rambling. I just had some thoughts that I felt needed to get out there, even if they are a bit disjointed and random :)

I'd love to hear your feeback though, do you agree with me? Disagree? Do you have any thoughts of your own on what I wrote about? Leave me a comment!

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