I Have Been Slacking
For the past week or so, I’ve been very lazy with the content I produce to Steemit
I have been posting twice a day, quite regularly, but I haven’t been posting the best of material. You have seen more camera phone photos than ever before, and all those throwbacks weren’t purely because I wanted to share and thought they might interest you, but they were also because I have been too fucking lazy to shoot new material. I have had some good ideas for writing but I have mostly done a half-ass job with those too for the past few weeks. I have been scatterbrained and unmotivated, I don’t even have any good outside elements I could blame for my lacking content, the circumstances have been more than favourable for all sorts of photography.
Did anyone even notice?
Nobody has come out and said anything straight to me about my post quality, but I think it might be partly because of fear. I have some influence and people might be afraid to judge me out in the open, in fear of retaliation from either me or someone who supports me.
You are all allowed to voice out if you feel like I’m not giving you your moneys/times worth, though I could also argue that you can always just click away. But constructive criticism is always welcome. Yeah sure, I might get a little pissed when judged and try to defend myself, but it only hurts if I know it is true.
The only person who said anything semi negative about my posting lately, is a friend who is not even on Steemit, but who checks up on my blog every day, and pointed out that I haven’t posted in over 24 hours.
I needed a break
I have been a full time Steemian, making 2-3 posts per day, for over six months know. That is A LOT, there are not many other people who do so, and do it successfully. Sure you can post crappy camera phone pictures and memes all day every day with minimum effort, but I’m talking about well crafter posts that have quality pictures and good writing. It is hard work to do that every day, but that is the path I have chosen. I’ve been border line obsessed about Steemit, scratch that, I AM OBSESSED ABOUT STEEMIT. It took over my whole life, made it better, but I also desperately needed a break.
I’ve been sleeping 8 to 10 hours a day, like a fucking baby kitten, and sunbathing for the rest of the day, like the sloth I am. I have been going out, which is actually really good because I don’t have a social life, but also I used that as an excuse for myself to slack on Steemit. Bad Steemian, very bad Steemian!
I am going to be brutally honest with you guys; I needed a break from creating content, but I didn’t want a break from the money. So I put quantity over quality. I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to grow my stash of Steem and SBD, but every once in a while I need a break from creating quality content. I’m never going to lie to you that the money doesn’t matter, when it clearly does and this is how I pay my bills. I don’t wanna go back to the kitchen!
Responsibility
It doesn’t take a Sherlock to figure out that a substantial amount of the upvotes I get come from automated votes. Votes from people that have followed me for a long time and want to support what I do. They are not here every hour of every day to check to see what I post and whether it is good, instead they trust that I put out content that is worthy of their vote every day. I think I owe it to them to keep up to the highest standard I have raised myself to.
False sense of security
Having big auto-votes creates a false sense of security. You get lulled to a belief that you will forever and always get those votes, no matter what you do, and it’s a very dangerous mentality to have. There is no written contract that promises me a certain number of votes, the percentages, or dollars on my work. All of it can be taken away in a heartbeat, just like it was given to me. Nobody has to tell you why you get the upvote, and nobody has to explain if they take it away. I definitely don’t want this all to go away because I started slacking and cutting corners.
Comfort is the enemy of progress
I have been resting on my laurels for some time, and it’s fucking disgusting. Like I mentioned earlier, nobody has called me out on this, but I set high standards for myself and I haven’t met those standards like I know I can. I am not a pro photographer, model or writer, and I have so much more to learn and give in all those areas. I just have to do it. I need to keep studying and making myself better in all those areas, there is never a point where I could say I’ve done or learned enough, never!
I don’t have a boss
That is what I have always wanted, to not have anyone tell me what to do and when to do it, but to be my own boss. Well I got what I asked for, and I always knew there would be times when I would need to be more strict with myself. And quite frankly, I need a spanking right about now! I have been giving myself days off, and haven’t been demanding better quality work from myself.
I need to push myself harder, I need to up my game, I need to shoot more, model more, go out there and do my fucking job. I need to entertain you, my audience, if I want to be successful. And I want to be, not just on Steemit, I want to take everything I do to the next level. This is only the starting point and I’m only rehearsing.
I am sorry
I apologise to my loyal followers, who continue to give me love and support, even when I don’t always deserve it. I say sorry to the people who have me on their auto-vote list and have trusted me to produce high quality posts on a regular basis.
But most of all, I am asking for forgiveness from myself, because I know I can do better. I don’t want to look back at my work and be disappointed in myself.
Even on your bad days you are better than most......
You are not helping, I was in need of a spanking for fucks sake, not compliments! 😤
But for real, thank you so much, you almost made me blush!
You are one slave drivin' boss! :O
I understand you are frustrated. I wish I could come up with the magic words you want to hear right now.
It's not the same but the only, even close, comparison I can think of is how I respond to people that have worked with me that have had bad days. When asked if I'm ever disappointed in them, I have always explained that I don't examine every single second and don't expect that they be at their max 100 % of the time. They are not machines! I look at who they are, in general, over time and do they make the group stronger. As I would hope they do when I have shitty periods... cause I sure do! Lol But, similar to you, I take myself for a long drive in the country and have a word with myself! ;)
As far as the autovote... Once I consider you part of my core group, I don't itemize every individual post. This is a creative medium, and creativity is going to come and go and be good and bad. As, I'm sure, you have done some weaker posts that don't exactly warrant that specific vote... there are other posts that, I know I have said to myself, I wish I could vote that one post over and over and over and just being allowed to vote once isn't fair! I just hope my votes, on average, are enough to keep you interested enough to keep at this... cause if you ever went away, I would seriously miss the great pics, biting sarcasm, digs, brutal honesty, humor and just over all ... umm.. unique posts and points of view. I know you have made me rethink quite a few things, both to do with your work and life in general. That's worth more to me than any amount of votes!
Spank away! ;)
But I'm still going to stick around.
I'm very hard on my employees, no slacking allowed if a bitch wants to get payed! There are no free lunches!
I do feel like I am entitled to some slacking here and there, a fast post with minimum effort, but definitely not on a daily basis! It's too easy to get into a bad habit of using old stuff and only write something really fast, not fully concentrating. Before you know it, I'm here posting one selfie a day with one line of text, you'd be bored in no time and would stop the upvoting for sure.
I'm glad to have such an understanding and loyal group of people around me, not scrutinising every single thing I do. I like the freedom of expression it gives me, but also that might be too much love and not enough boundaries sometimes. I'm basically a teenager and need to be told off if it looks like I'm a little too carefree with my privileges.
I'm happy to have you here and I hope we continue to have great conversations! :)
Isn't your whole lightmotif showing your true self? Even your usnm is suggesting that we'll get you as you are - and I'm guessing it wasn't chosen just because of a boob or two every once in a while.
So why apologize?
Sure, making things that you know could potentially lower your income is not smart, but choosing a lifestyle where posting on Steemit is your main (only?) nutela-bringer is not what you would call smart in a traditional way. And you've made that work.
I know I couldn't do it, not because I don't think I could produce good content, but because I would probably lose interest in a month or so.
Where was I? Oh yeah, posting on Steemit is your job, it doesn't matter that you enjoy doing it, if that's how you make a living it's a job.
Any job, I don't care how much fun you are having doing it, requires a break. It really doesn't matter what you do on a break, you could go on a cruise or just hang upside-down on your bed.
That's your basic human right - you shouldn't be apologizing, and if anyone gives you shit for your time off, you should be like mother-bear protecting her cubs - all sharp teeth and claws and spitting rage.
Yes, I am here to share everything, but it's how I share it that matters to me. What ever I want to share, show and tell, I want to do it in a unique artistic way, through good pictures and writing. The internet is full of lifestyle bloggers who share boring ass pictures and write about their boring ass day, I have no desire to be one of those. I'm a fucking snowflake.
No-one is forcing me to post, and most wouldn't care if I take a break, but the thing is that I didn't take a break in posting, but took a break from quality. And sure, that is fine every now and then, but not on consecutive posts and days, it's not up to my standards. Like I saids, nobody called me out on it, I'm doing it to myself, because I know I can do a lot better, I have done a lot better.
People have tried to rain on my Steemit parade many a times, and you can be sure that I wasn't too gentle the way I handled it. This is my baby, and I want my baby to grow up to be strong and beautiful.
Why did you have to mention Nutella, now I want it😤
I don't want to contradict you or, Flying Spaghetti Monster forbid, try to tell you what to do with your life.
But, having a post or two (or a week worth of them) that are not to you high standard shouldn't really be a big deal. You have to take a moment or two from time to time to recharge.
I've noticed that you've been a bit nonchalant with a few posts, but I didn't mind at all. On the contrary, it kept me interested to see what kind of a candy is coming around the corner.
Nutela Yea right, like you need the mention to want it ;)
Nonchalant is a good word for my resent actions, and quite frankly, that bores me to death. If I bore myself with my own posts, why would I expect anyone else to enjoy it, well I don't. I want to do exciting things, for both myself and for you on the other side of the screen.
Looks like you got your mind set, so stop wasting time replying to my comments and go make some content that will blow my mind.
;)
I can’t even get one shit meme a day finished. I admire your effort.
And yet, we've been missing you like crazy over here! You are one special kind of motherfucker!
A ginger diamond in the rough.
You are ginger!? Oh dear lord, hail Mary and Jesus take the wheel. Did you know I have a major thing for gingers?
I’m like half ginger. I call myself a day walker ginger lol.
Hey Eve, long time no chat! Thank you for opening up to us like this, its not easy to reflect critically on oneself like this, but Im glad to see that this has been a constructive experience for you :) We all get ourselves into these kinds of creative ruts every once in a while but I'm sure you'll come out of it stronger than ever.
However, Im not going to let someone as talented and creative as you give yourself such a hard time over this. First of all, you deserve a well-earned break filled with countless hours of sleep and peaceful reflection! The amount of content you produce on Steemit day in, day out is truly staggering and serves as inspiration for so many other people on the platform. I have been following you on Steemit since January of this year and I dont think there has been a single day that I havent seen one of your posts pop up on my feed. Thats fucking impressive.
So instead of enabling your apologizing, I instead want to say Thank you! Thank you for the creativity and diversity in the content you create. Thank you for the honesty and emotion that you share with us. And finally, thank you for the inspiration you give to all us content creators on Steemit to be as good as we can be! You're a one of kind, and I cant wait to see how your work develops from here :)
Hey there, happy to see you! (Why am I not following you, I thought I was!)
I think I'm somewhat bipolar and sometimes I'm super motivated to create more and more, and other times I just want to sleep and watch Netflix. It's hard to find balance on a daily basis, but I try!
Damn you guys are just too fucking nice to me, what did I ever do to deserve you?! 😭 Thank you so much for your kind words, I will continue to keep up the good work, and do less of the bad one.
I honestly feel the same way about my creative spirit! Ill sit at home feeling sorry for myself and depressed at how hard it feels to get out of the house and take photos... But then when I do go out, its the most amazing and satisfying feeling in the world! I guess some days we're the nail and others were the hammer :)
It wouldn't even be reasonable to be always in the mood for photography! It is fun most of the time but I find it hard to start too, but once I get going, it's good!
Listen here madam, none of that. You don't just make for an impressive model, but write damn fine piece to. Fact is that everyone will have a slow time or downtime, but the thing is to come back hard and true to yourself which you clearly do, so problem solved see.
That was well put, to be true to myself, that is exactly what I need to do and what I felt like I wasn't doing for the past couple weeks. I feel so much better when I get shit done and put out content that I really like myself.
Good to have pride in one's work and it shows in yours. Now give it horns
your crimes are serious but this is first offence so I will not cut your salary. whole 0-0.01? penny is still yours. 😝
Sure I also noticed that you were gone for 24+ hours. But that is not a bad thing. sometimes taking a few days to rest is good idea. we can then come back stronger and better than before.
You are so kind and forgiving, thank you sir. I will promise to be better in the future.
Don't undervalue yourself, you have become as a matter of fact one of the most successful pro bloggers, writers, photographers, models on Steemit. Congrats and also your attitude to further improve yourself is very adorable. Keep up the great work 👍 You are great 😍
Aww you! Thank you so much for the kind words. I know I am somewhat successful in here, and that is even more reason for me to try and keep the level I have reached, and try for new heights!
Maybe you need to find another passion to reinvigorate yourself and bring it to Steem. While the network is still quite small I don't see any problem in trying new stuff. Some may fall flat but you may hit on an idea that gets you off your lazy ass. I think the most important thing is to enjoy what you do and you will never have to work another day in your life. So I ask, you what else are you passionate about?
It's not a problem with anything creative really, I have a lot of ideas and possibilities, I have been just too darn lazy to put them in motion! I think "do what you love and never work a day in your life" is complete and utter bullshit. Even when you are passionate about something, it doesn't mean it's just easy sailing, I think it might actually be even harder because you always want to improve your work. I'm very passionate about photography and this whole blogging thing, but it doesn't mean it's easy and fun every hour of every day.
I understand what you mean. I two have times of trying to motivate myself to get off my ass, I sometimes find it helpful to look back at the other stuff I've do. Don't get me wrong I know it is hard working for yourself (have done so myself for 22 years) but it's a different feeling than putting in the hours for an employer who reaps the rewards of your labor.
@eveuncovered Hey there..I wasn't for follower until I read this post of yours.... I went through the post and also looked over some your very few post with low quality (but far better than many post in steemit) photography and your good posts from earlier time. Its OK to get rest from your regular doing but it is important to get a strong come back and best of luck for that...I will be following you to see that good come back...I have also attached a photo with some cool inspirations lines..hope you will like it...Till then keep moving
It's kind of funny that you got here because I wrote about my slacking, but at least something good came out of it then :) Though this post was anything but slacking, I really did think about all of this and carefully wrote it out. I hope I can keep you here with my future posts :)