Like flies on...
no no no.. be positive, be positive...
Once upon a time I used to be a happy-go-lucky, carefree optimist who would skip along the forest paths picking wildflowers and singing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah like I was Uncle Remus with a bluebird on my shoulder. And then Steem happened.
It was fine at first. I would drop by and post, answer a few comments (I didn't get many) and check the payouts on my posts, which didn't take long since many of them were 0 and those that weren't, weren't much higher. Good times.
I remember thinking after a month or two why I was bothering but then, what else was I going to do? Life wasn't easy for us then either and I was up nearly all nights with our daughter. I would write between her midnight naps while I watched a TV series with subtitles, so that I didn't wake my wife. More good times.
But soon, I started enjoying it, started getting into a flow and even though I still wrote at night, the TV wasn't on anymore as, I wasn't watching it anyway. People these days seem to think they will miss out on something important if they turn of the constant flood of TV series. They won't. Once you have seen enough, the same themes run through them, just with slightly different characters and words. You can even recognize the same extras popping up in the backgrounds.
The other interesting thing that I found from turning off was my mind started to free itself from the consumption of media and as it did, creativity started to flow. People think creativity is reducing because they take art out of school but this is not the case. It is decreasing because more and more time is spent consuming others ideas in front of a screen and like I said in the last paragraph, the ideas are very repetitive. It is almost like they collude on what stories they are going to tell.
But, then, I started looking into Steem more heavily and exploring what I had been missing. Why were my posts doing so poorly, how come that one is so high, that person doesn't answer comments, this one is only voting on them self.... You get the idea, I started looking under the surface and began to see a world I hadn't seen before. The real world. Well, not 'really real' but real enough that it resembled the real world closely. This is when it got interesting at Steem for me as I started to see something I was familiar with, negatives.
Yes, I was a positive person once upon a time but, most of my jobs have been focused on two core areas;
Finding negatives and improving negatives
And, once I started looking, it was like the scene from the usual suspects when Kayser Soze left the detective's office and the detective started to understand the entire story was a lie. Steem had lied to me and I had believed it. I needed to find the truth, I needed to jump into the rabbit hole and get a bit dirty.
And, this is where I am now, still digging through what the flies are attracted to but, I am not a fly, I am still looking to improve the negatives as I have always done. But, I also have to remember that not everyone deals well with only seeing the negatives of a situation, that some people need a little light too so, I am trying to introduce a little of my old self in, a little of my pre-Steemen, so to speak.
The world is dark enough at times to only focus on the negatives, even if that is where the largest gains will be made. Perhaps a little positivity and fun isn't the worst thing to dig around in sometimes also. I wonder what positive will attract?
Just a few words from here, there and a little of everywhere.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
There was a guy who always started to mumble 'be positive', 'be positive', ...... whenever he saw trouble. He worked a high pressure job and his office sometimes faced 'pressure cooker' situations.
On one such stressful day he was humming 'be positive'........ until his irritated colleague asked him, "WTF is be positive?"
His reply was simple, "My blood type".
Sometimes people just use the facade of postivity to hide from a reality (I certainly do). Better be person with negative outlook, than be an ostrich with its head in the sand.
lol.
Yeah, I have no problem with looking into the negative and I am not one who avoids it however, I find that some people that visit my blog would probably benefit from some positive views of the world too, especially the Steem world. There is a lot to like here also.
It is very difficult to figure out what people are really attracted to, as everyone of them has different intentions. Some are attracted to good content, others are looking for posts with very high upvotes and value, while others are just upvoting randomly. And then you have the other group of the genuine followers who upvote and read anything you post. Steemit is still a MAZE :)
Considering how few users there really are, there are a lot of different personalities :)
Hi Taraz. I agree a balance between negative and positive would be good. Normally when you join something like a company or moving to a new country you tend to see things others can't see. You have fresh ideas and a different outlook. This place is not like any of that though. It is overwhelming and is probably closer to the first day of school. It doesn't matter how old you are or what you have experienced in life it counts for very little. You have to try and figure it out for your self and if you are thick skinned and are tenacious you have the right tools for here. It takes all sorts to survive on here and that what makes it interesting.
Every morning I log on and it really is a lot like the first day of school.
My first day of Kindergarten: I walked through the gates and found out I am coloured.
My first day of primary school: I walked through the gates and got a half-pumped soccer ball kicked into my face.
My first day of high school: I walked through the gates and a cute girl named Maria said hi.
Lol. It is true though. I couldn't compare this to anything else. Funny thing is though I didn't really like school so why am I still here?
Didn't you read?
I walked through the gates and a cute girl named Maria said hi.
You were lucky you went to a coed school. I was at an all boys school.
TV is creative cancer.
....and steemit can be stifling if too much time is spent on it. (I'm talking about myself, who sits here for 8 hours a day).
I have noticed getting away from it, is like a breath of fresh air...but I soon return..
....I might miss out on something!
Any time consumption outweighs creation it is going to stifle and as it increases, it smothers.
If the world burns down you get to do a lot of rebuilding as you see fit. Many are disappointing and dropping like flies. I’m off trying build up some things. When the masses returns they will still be disappointed as they were not around during prime building opportunity. They were around when only the windows needed washing and the fresh paint a light scrub to keep its shine.
Thanks dudes, I've only been on here ten minutes and my positivism meter has hit overdrive....now I am not sure I can be nice to anybody else here tonight.
It is amazing how few see the opportunity here. It tells a lot about the fitness of the world.
It's a matter of focus, it's good that you found your way and on the road to success helps some
Man, I've quit trying to separate the positive and negative.... Hell, labels in general really. Instead I just try to really come at life from a place of love and service (albeit a little more cautious than I might have been 10 or 15 years ago).