Valuable Reminders for Maintaining Mental Health on Steemit
This fatigue is for real. I've been overly-critical over some of my recent drafts which are taking more than 30-35 hours to prepare, which explains why I have not posted for the past 4-5 days. Maybe that's a good thing for Steemit because I'm feeling that the quality has skyrocketed since the day I joined about 6 weeks ago. I felt like I needed to step-up my game.
Or am I being too hard on myself? It's not like I have nothing to write. In fact, I have an entire universe of stuff to write about!
I've spoken to a few Steemians since regarding this annoying problem that I'm facing. The general answer: go do something else! So I went away for about two days. I did not fully disconnect myself from Steemit lol, but I just avoided writing and stressing myself out.
Now that I'm thoroughly refreshed, why not start writing about the valuable insights that I've gained from resting, right? So here we go!
The Sky Is The Greatest Healer
I'm a creature of the night, but there's no denying that being under sun is highly therapeutic. It can sometimes feel extremely claustrophobic facing our monitors and mobile device all day long. Looking at my Android, sometimes I feel like my mind is being imprisoned.. trapped within the confines of its 5 inch touchscreen.
Since when have I become so.. cyberpunk? Everything that I deal with is now electronic, and within my hand's reach. Yesterday, I drove up a hill and just spread myself on the grassbed like da Vinci's anatomical figure. So refreshing looking at the night sky. A breath of fresh air.
There Is No Perfection, Only Preference
My journalist cousin reminded me something about content creation - there's no such thing as perfection, only preference. This is absolutely true. Think about our concept of beauty. There really is no such thing as beauty! Beauty is imposed by society. Different cultures, different preferences. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
If someone reads me his poem or takes me to a play that in the end fails to please my taste, then he can adduce Batteux or Lessing, or even older and more famous critics of taste, and adduce all the rules they established as proofs that his poem is beautiful. I will stop my ears, listen to no reasons and arguments, and would rather believe that those rules of the critics are false than allow that my judgment should be determined by means of a priori grounds of proof, since it is supposed to be a judgment of taste and not of the understanding of reason.
-- From Kant's 1790 Critique of the Power of Aesthetic Judgment
The best that one can do is to put more effort into substance, and don't put too much time into style. I understand this too much being a musician. It's just that having a good crowd over in Steemit makes me feel like I want to deliver on all fronts. But alas, mental agony over style is just not worth it. I rather have fun.
It's OKAY to leave things unfinished
I realise that the culture of finishing up everything is pretty pervasive in electronic culture. Everything is being gamified. I'm a game completionist myself, always chasing after digital highs with fake dopamine stimulation. Gaddamn achievement unlocks.
Thinking about it, it's actually not all that fun. If the article that you took 3-hours to write ended up being sucky.. just decide if you want to publish it or leave it archived. Don't spend too much time trying to finish it. It's okay not to finish things. There are more important things to do.. like living in the moment. Carpe diem.
If it's something important, just try to finish it when you're not so stressed up.
I'm not in any way, promoting people to do stuff half-heartedly
I believe the best way to progress in life is through moderate work. Sure, hardwork may be the way to get to the peak faster.. but remember that our morale is finite. Mess your brain up and you'll lose permission to carry on. I'm sure we've seen this too many times happening to great artists. Extreme burnout and permanent disillusionment.
I think what's more important is to stay happy and healthy. All the best in your Steemit adventures :)
Stay tuned, I think I have some pretty good stuff comin' up soon!
You are right. I'm gonna go outside :)
Thanks.
No! Stay inside.. we need you xD
Yes....that is true we need your vote and you can go outside....ha....ha... :)
Yes - it's absolutely essential to take a break. Step back, reflect, refresh. It'll make your ideas fresher, and yes, stop you from going insane :)
The insane thing is.. I can re-read my article for like 3-4 times, revise for an hour or two.. then decide not to publish it!
Some friends and myself are putting together a project that we're all pretty excited about, so it's been nice in the past few days to step away from the intensity of posting, posting, replying, posting replying, etc etc. and put my mental energy into that project....and get away from the screen for a while. I spend all day in front of a computer screen for work, so to have that constant time staring at one even outside of work can build up and become it's own source of stress if care isn't taken. It's good to step away once in a while, if even only for half an hour.
Thanks for this reminder.
No problem brother :) I wish interface technology would be more invisible next time.. what's up with that project? Kinda rare if it doesn't involve computers and screens these days!
I convinced a few friends here to join up on Steemit, and after some thinking of what we could do, we started a podcast. :)
What.. that sounds like so much fun. Now I wish I have a few close IRL friends who actually understands crypto xD will check out your new podcast :) it's gonna be up on steemit?
We actually have 2 episodes up so far, and you'll be able to tell the difference in discussion quality between 001 and 002. We've got plans to continue increasing this quality moving foward, as well as add more structure to the whole thing. Eventually we plan on bringing on well-known Steemsters to join in the discussion. :)
Here's 001...
And here's 002.
Thanks pal. Will checkout your podcast on my drive tomorrow morning :)
Awesome, thank you! :)
Just a heads up, it's less about cryptocurrency (for now, that will change), and more about the actual content we see around on Steemit. In fact, these two episodes tend to get pretty philosophical. As we bring more people on, the topics can and will be all over the map. In fact, we've already got a couple of other locals here who are much tekkier than we are who have a better grasp on the cryptocurrency side of things who are excited to join us periodically.
could you remove the F bomb though
Done! :D Thanks a lot pal :)
Thank you for this insightful post. You have such a healthy perspective on things.
Thank you @donkeypong :) I feel there are bound to be quite a number of burnouts like what I went through.. so I had to write this!
Great read thanks:). ...Balance is key. Like everything in life if you if you tip the scales in one direction to much the weight becomes to heavy. It is hard when something new and exciting comes along all you want to do is pursue it 24/7. Burning out happens without even knowing it has. Time management is also important, because time is limited. If you keep the balance by removing your ass from the chair and do other constructive things like exercise,clean the house, or go for a walk in the park and smoke a joint you will find that your actual time blogging will become more productive. When you get to the stage you are staring at the screen not knowing what to write , it is time to get up and go do something constructive.
You know exactly what's happening lol. Staring stupid at the screen not knowing what to write.. or even worse, to hit publish or not. I'm gonna start giving myself a time-limit for Steemit from today onward. I think I've been spending at least an average of 12 hours a day on Steemit since the day I joined 6 weeks ago. I'm probably planning a year-long trip.. be mobile, and always do what I wanted.. see more of the world :)
I develope Avatars for a virtual world. Back when i started i was living in a house out from the city no neighbours just me and my dogs. I would sometimes spend more than 24 hours on the pc just consumed with the need to create. It took around 6 months and a few comments about the way i looked before i made a change. I realized that with the proper balance, in my case i started a lot of exercise and long walks with the dogs, that any time i spent on the pc became 50% more productive than before.
"I'm probably planning a year-long trip.. be mobile, and always do what I wanted.. see more of the world :)"....That is the beauty of working online, if you have no family commitments you can get up and go travel and just blog your way from city to city:)..
Now i'm thinking.. how the hell do i start to travel with my best friend (a dog!). I don't think it's that easy.. he's the only commitment that I have atm :)
Yeah that isn't easy. I travelled around Australia with my 2 German Shepherds and that was difficult, but internationally is a whole different ball game, you couldn't really do it because of quarantine. You might have to find yourself a well trusted dog sitter. Some of the the dog sitters can be awesome, but i recommend a very intensive vetting first. I used one dog sitter for a few years but ended up going with family . When i was living in Australia i would get my Mum to come over from New Zealand and take care of them while i went traveling, it is nice to know your dogs which are like family are in trusted hands.
hi love the post i will be featuring it today
Im gonna go outside and keep on steem-ing . i cant live without steemit anymore .
I can't remember life before Steemit.. :p
You kidding ?
I born after steemit been launch :p
Good tips kevin, Ive been trying to make a post a day and although Im not feeling the burnout at the moment I definitely will once my work load starts picking up. I don't know about the sun idea though that means I would actually have to like..... leave my room 0.0....... lol jk.
Man you're definitely on fire. Keep up the momentum while you're certain about what you wanna write for the comunity. Acing it so far! Give me an early notice whenever you have something new up.. you know.. early bird offer :D
haha thanks man, ill throw you a heads up on rocketchat before im going to post something. Ill probably post something tonight. Not sure when I get around to it. Its about how I ran a $10,000 mining operation in my small bedroom.
Wow good timing brother. My next post will be something to do with the bedroom (not naughty stuff). Maybe I should wait til you release it then we'll have the bedroom word seeded on steemit :D
Good post and great idea too! I do experience it and you getting no where! Agree with you, take a break and everything will be refreshed. Happy Steeming and hope to see more post from you. Thanks @kevinwong.
Thanks for the kind words @jjchic
Looks like you haven't start blogging yet. I'll be on the lookout for your posts. Thanks again!