Everyone wants to succeed. Whether it's on Steemit, in Crypto, Careers, or Passions, we all want to accomplish something amazing in this lifetime. So what's stopping us? A lot of things, but you might be surprised to hear that most of them aren't the outside circumstances we believe them to be. Tonight, I'm going to tell some stories about endurance, persistence, understanding. I also discuss the only person that can hold you back from dreams, riches, and accomplishments beyond what seems possible.

That person is you.

You Have to Believe Before You See

If you can figure out the right mindset, you're over half way there. Don't worry about your stats or payouts, put your efforts towards anything, and sooner or later your physical reality will just have to match up. Don't believe me? Cause if you don't think you will succeed, you won't try as hard, you will get frustrated, you may start to blame others. If something will be meaningful to you, then it's going to be very difficult to do. Focus your energy towards what you want to do.

Forget About the How Your Goal Will Be Reached

There should only be two things in your mind, your goal and where you are right now. If you asked me what I would be writing about when I started on Steemit two months ago, I would have told you computers, games, and philosophy because those are things I like. I would not be able to foresee myself entering any contest, yet here I am! You can check out my entry for the Poetry Dice Challenge 3000 Week 10 contest thrown by @robyneggs here, and my entry for the Steemit-Art Photo Editing Contest #2 thrown by @creativesoul here.

But Don't Forget to Do the Things That Will Bring You Closer to Your Goal: MANY ACTIONS, ONE GOAL

How are these completely unrelated contests going to help me become successful on Steemit? I decided that in order to get where I want to be, I need to...

• To make friends & get followers
• Get exposure
• Write more posts
• Participate in the Community

There are countless way to do something, and your actions should be able to tie into what your goal is. I had a lot of fun trying my hand at entering these competitions, although I don't know jack about poetry. Does it matter? If I'm not the best, as long as I gave it my best?

What helps me is knowing that I did better than everyone who didn't try. I'm not wrong! There were a lot of times in my life before where I didn't want to try something because I was afraid I was going to fail. Newsflash! If you've never done something before, be prepared to fail- but hope you don't! The biggest failure is not trying.

The photo editing contest was even harder. I may love editing images in Photoshop, but the contest was to recolor/reimagine a black and white photo. I don't know how to color a black and white photo, but I decided that I didn't want to give up. I spent today learning how to do it, now I can color black and white photos to some degree, which is much better than none!

It may not look relevant at the time, but I am accomplishing everything I want to do on Steemit by entering them. Contests are not a waste of time, and shouldn't be taken lightly. Even if you don't win, many beneficial things can come from it! Since I was already in an art mode, I decided to also color one of the coloring book pages that @creativesoul made! There are two right now, so I started on the first one. Original post here!

My recreation

It's Okay To Be Different, Even if Your Work Doesn't Resemble any One Else's

Especially if what you do is different, or unique, and you don't have anyone to talk about it with. I used to think I was the weird one out of everyone I knew. Instead of thinking of your differences as a defect, you should acknowledge your style. Back when I was 19 (2009), I wanted to make music. I had no idea where to start, I played violin back in middle school, and I liked karaoke. I spent years reading and watching about chords, scales, music theory, composition, and how songs are made.

My friends couldn't relate or contribute to conversations I wanted to have because they didn't understand the topics. I wanted to go on a different path, and to be able to make something that was mine. None of my friends or coworkers were making music, the world felt lonely while I held myself up in my room for months and years trying to learn. Everything I made sounded weird, so I kept going until I could replicate what I heard in my head into music. Every time I learned something new, it made the next song better!

If You Can Stay With It Long Enough, Anything is Doable

A few years in, I was invited to a local producer meetup. Although I wasn't a DJ, or attended parties, a lot of people knew that I worked on music on a regular basis. I met one guy named Andrew who was passionate and dedicated about making his own music, he was also the only person who brought an original song to play.

I didn't bring any of my tracks because I was scared. It didn't occur to me that I had been making music by myself for over 3 years, and that everyone else invited had a mixtape at best to show. We ended up becoming friends and would share our music, and drafts to help with second opinions. We encouraged each other, because even if you aren't where you want to be yet, you are still trying your best to get there. Another year in, and I started to make songs that I was proud of. I can confidently say that I can write, compose, and produce music without assistance!

https://soundcloud.com/shelloftw/stars

Nothing Happens When You Give Up

I've had plenty of days of beating my myself, and feeling stuck or lost and not knowing what to do. However, my thoughts were focused solely on how I wanted to do a specific part of a song, not whether I could do it or not, and only that. ONLY FOCUS ON THE MOMENT. I wanted what I made to sound good to me, and I wouldn't stop until I was able to reach it. My mixing sounded like garbage, time to learn how to mix a song down. I hated making beats, and doing bass lines, I should do that first.

Learning is a GUARANTEED IMPROVEMENT

If you are ever scared, learn something. Knowledge can be useful when you least expect, and you can apply new skills towards your future. I learned a lot of random things in my short life, and I seize every opportunity to build on something I have previously learned. It boosts your self esteem, and adds one more possible way your goals may be reached.

Right before I moved away from Hawai'i for a year, Andrew wanted to work on a collab song. At the time, I was preparing to move, and was working on many things. We lived far from each other, and our work schedules constantly clashed. We chose to trade wav files back and forth and made the entire song remotely without meeting in person once. If you want something badly enough, obstacles will eventually get tired of being in your way.

https://soundcloud.com/shelloftw/dotdot-the-unfinished-project-shello-zrazzi-collab-edit-2014/s-Kv8id

Reality Starts as Dreams

Andrew messaged me earlier today, to let me know that his song was recently featured in an article for well known EDM news site. After sharing our music dreams for years, he got his recognition. I was extremely happy for him, this is what all those late night talks were about. This might be small, but hey- it's becoming real. I laughed that he's mistaken for a female artist in the article, and he wanted to tell me a few things.

You Have To Dream Big

He's been making music longer than I had, full equipment set ups, and well versed in production, composition, and mixing. Over 10 years, and only now many people are seeing his hard work. He was telling me his accomplishment with awe and shock himself, although he was always working towards it. He still has lots of days where he is unsure, or stuck, or can't come up with the motivation. His self discipline helps him to stay motivated and keep bad days to a low, he still has them. So do I, and so does everyone else. Don't be misguided in thinking that things get easier once you are improving on Steemit. Things will still be difficult, but it will be different things. Choose to make big dreams, and big goals. They need to be bigger than anything that could scare you away from reaching them.

Don't Sell Yourself Short

He literally told me not to be modest, and followed it up with how impressed he was with how many skills I had learned throughout our friendship. I didn't know what to say, the person who got published is telling me that they don't know how I do it. The toughest pill to swallow, that I wanted to refuse. Part of me reflected on a detail. You know how it's said that you can write amazing articles and be a skilled writer and still fail at Steemit? I don't believe that, but it still may hold some truth.

If you are skilled or talented at anything, but don't tell anyone, then there's no way to find you. If you don't connect with anyone, how do you learn new things, and how do others learn about you? I fell into a perfectionist trap for a while, thinking that every post needed to be perfect. I was scared of writing bad posts. I realized that I need to put myself out there. You won't know what others will like until you show them what you got.

The most important thing is to do what you like. If you don't enjoy something, don't do it! A passion should feel like everything BUT a chore!