Not sure where to start to write about this amazing challenge and to answer how Steemit has positively influenced my life. And, it has in some many ways. More than I ever thought when I joined this amazing platform. Like probably everybody, I came here for the opportunity to make some extra income. One of my friends kept mentioning Steemit for couple months and how great it is and how much success he had been part of it. To keep the long story short, I joined this amazing platform on his suggestion, and after 7 months now Steemit has given me way more than just an extra source of income. So much more, more than I could ever imagine, and I will try to put it all into words in this post.

Even before Steemit I am very well situated guy financial wise, and I do have more than enough to live a comfortable life from my "job" earnings. I have never considered what I do a job for me. It is way more for me, more than just a source of income, way more. Similar to what Steemit has become for me in these 7 months I have been here. You see I am a professional basketball player, and I am currently playing in Italy. In a town called Cosenza. This is my 3rd year playing in Italy now and I love Italy. It is a beautiful country. If you never been to Italy I highly recommend you visit it one day. You will not regret it.

I have recently turned 30 years old on March 1. And, sadly to say, I have to face reality like every other athlete out there. The playing days of the sport I love, the sport I have dedicated my life to and which has given me so much in life is slowly coming to an end. The end might come next year or in a couple of years. As every professional player career can literally be over in a matter of seconds. You make a wrong movement, misjudge the situation in front you, get injured and never get the opportunity play this beautiful sport again. Life of a professional basketball player is truly that fragile. One second fragile. One second fragile and one bad judgment or movement fragile. But I am not here to talk about basketball, but how Steemit has changed my life for the better since I joined it. So let's get into it.

With basketball careers being sometimes "one second fragile" and your source of income can be gone in literally that one second I have come to a point in my life where I have to start thinking about other sources of income besides basketball. This is where Steemit comes into a play. So how much has Steemit changed my life financially? It has changed nothing really. As I have not cashed out a single penny from Steemit jet. I am investing it all back into Steam because I believe this platform has amazing potential. Potential to change people lives and potential to change the greedy world we live in now. I believe Steemit has potential to change the "little" guys lives, and it already is changing people live in fact. We see the examples of it in posts every day. It is one of the most amazing things about Steemit in general.

But, this post about how Steemit changed my life in a positive way and that is what I am going to share with you now. It has done the most amazing things for my life and none of them are connected to the financial part of Steemit. I think I have been given gifts I have never expected to get when I joined Steemit. And, they are what I call "heart and soul-feeding" gifts which have enriched my life in so many ways. In ways, I could off never imagined when I joined this amazing platform.

I will start with how Steemit has helped me discover my talents for writing. Before Steemit I have never considered myself to be a good writer. I knew how to write don't get me wrong but never considered myself of writing a great story or motivational posts I been writing on Steemit. Since I got to Steemit the support I have been in the comments of my posts and in discord channels from people I barely know has been incredible. The messages I got from people telling me my words inspire them to be more positive about life and to go after their dreams were overwhelming honestly. I have never expected to get this kind of reactions. I wanted to inspire people with my life stories and posts, but to see it actually happening in front of your eyes is incredible. It is the heart and soul food I been talking about before. Incredible feeling.

I think one of the most "rewarding" things in life you can do is to help people. To inspire them to do amazing things and chase their dreams in life. Watching people succeed with you being just a little tiny part of their journey is incredible. Knowing you were a little spark in their lives which unlocked the power that was already inside them. The power which just needed a little "push" to unlock. I love helping people realize that they are all capable, and more powerful than they ever thought. Because we all are. I truly believe it.

And, I have a message to all you of you amazing people who I tried to inspire through my posts. You have inspired me more than I ever tried to inspire you with my words. It is not even close. You have unlocked the power inside me. You have encouraged me to keep writing and keep sharing my thoughts. And, to get better at writing with each post. And, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you. Without you, I would not be a better and more positive person I was before joining Steemit. And, life should be all about this exact thing. People helping each other and encouraging each to be better every day. People helping each other realized that we are all more powerful than we ever thought we are. Because YOU are, and WE are. More than you ever thought possible. You better BELIEVE IT.

Without the opportunity, I got with Steemit I would never discover my talent for writing and encouraging people to unlock the power inside them to be the best possible version of themselves. Without Steemit I would not be becoming and working toward the best version of myself like I am doing now.

Now, this is closely connected to the topic I just wrote about. Right from the beginning, I joined Steemit I had people who I barely knew literally bending over backward to help with anything I needed to know about Steemit. I mean guys people I barely knew these people or did not know them at all. These people literally took hours of their days to help a guy who had millions of questions about Steemit.A guy they never met. And, trust me guys when I say this I am a very detailed guy. I had A LOT of questions. How amazing is that? We all want to see a world where people are helping each other and in the first weeks, I joined Steemit I see this world we all want to see. People helping each other. Total "strangers" taking the time out of their lives to HELP ME, a total stranger to them who had way too many questions. lol

I talk about this a lot. And I value it more than writing a number on the paper we call MONEY. Because money will never feed your heart and soul. It is people like this that will do it. No matter how many things you buy with money it will never be even close to a feeling I got just in few weeks I got from joining Steemit. It is refreshing, liberating, and heartwarming. It is not tangible, and it can only be felt with your heart and soul. After every day seeing in the news about terrible things people do to each other this is where I see the hope for humanity in general. People helping each other making this world a better place. This is restoring my faith in humanity. Things like this. Steemit has given me the opportunity to meet all these amazing people.

Without Steemit being there for me to experience this I would never meet so many selfless people in my life. People willing to help a complete stranger. And, I want to thank some of these people. But two people in particular first. They were there for me the first time I joined. @uwelang got me to join Steemit and helped me tremendously in getting started on Steemit. Thank you, brother, without you I would not be here experiencing all these things. for But, most of all I want to thank @ana-maria for spending hours and hours with me in chat explaining Steemit to me. You are an amazing and good-hearted person and without your guidance, I would probably quit Steemit long time ago. You are AMAZING.

@littlenewthings @enchantedspirit @catweasel @ethansmith @ @elizacheng @eaglespirit @calumam @caleebleejl @coachjj @keciah @dreamsteem @zen-art @shadowspub @exanime15 @whack.science @spalatino @tonac @zija2022 @ivan.atman @tamacvet @tripdespider @hopehuggs @apanamamama @lenasveganliving @heart-to-heart @crazybgadventure @olegw @silentscreamer @sultnpapper ...

I probably missed so many other amazing people who have made my Steemit experience incredible. I am sorry if you don't find your name on this tag. I was afraid I missed somebody with tagging. Love you all. You have all indirectly or directly through the amazing comments of support you left on my posts, or with the direct advice, you have given me about Steemit. I am thankful for you all. You guys are amazing. And, I am sure I will see many of you in the comments of this post. Looking forward to it actually.

Without Steemit I would never meet these amazing people. I would never get the opportunity to share my life with this people. Steemit has given me way more than just another "source of income" I was looking for besides basketball.

As you can see by now Steemit has given me way more than I ever imagined it could give me. And, here is my advice to all of you amazing Steemians. It does not matter if you are here for only the money. There is nothing wrong with it. We all want to make some extra money and maybe in the future make Steemit our primary source of income. But, don't forget that Steemit is way more than just a dollar sign in your head.

Steemit gives you an opportunity to meet the most amazing people from all around the world. Think about it? You are instantly connected to someone across the world with a touch of a keyboard. How amazing is that? What you write, comment, and share right now somebody on the other side of this world could be reading. Your thoughts, your words, can influence people lives. And, my personal advice to you all is that if you are going to use your words?

Use them to bring people up, and NOT to bring people down. Words are incredibly powerful and they can be a difference between somebody reaching their goals of falling short. Words are truly this powerful. Use your words to inspire and motivate people to reach their goals and become the best version of themselves. Seeing people succeed with you being a little part of their success is one of the most rewarding and soul-feeding things you can ever accomplish in life. Trust me on this.

Even if you here only for the money part of Steemit making friends and relationships is closely related to your goal. It is the best thing about Steemit. You get the chance to create relationships and friendships which can someday go outside the Steemit and translate into "real life". You can literally meet these people in person. That is a true and for me the best part of Steemit. It is making a world a much "smaller" place. It is the real power of Steemit. Bringing people together. I love seeing so many amazing examples on Steemit on how people are actually helping each other. Steemit is literally changing people lives every single day. That is what world should be today. A place where people help each other and live together in harmony with each other and nature.

So my advice to all of you is to help others, and you will help yourself the most. Don't make Steemit just another job. It is way more than that. Create relationships, make friends, help others, and the rest, even the money part will take care of itself. Have fun while you are here. Be a positive, motivating, encouraging person, and help as much as you can and if you can. Who knows maybe you will meet some of these people behind the computer screens. And, I think it will be worth more than any amount you earn on Steemit. This is my advice to you all not only for Steemit but for life as well.

Your words are POWERFUL and they can CHANGE people LIVES. I always say leaving sincere, post related, amazing comments opens you to a world of creating friendships from all around the world. No matter what the reason is for you being on Steemit creating friends is the KEY TO YOUR SUCCESS.Take both from the amazing world of Steemit. Make friends, and create amazing true relationships, and the rest will take care itself. That is my advice to you all.

First I will start with the most "unimportant" thing to me with Steemit. It has given me the opportunity to make extra income besides my basketball career. My basketball career is coming to an end and in just couple of years of little more, or maybe days if injury cuts my career even shorter, I will stop playing basketball. That is one of the reasons I invest so much time into my writing and into Steemit in general. Because it could be one of the options for me to make a living after my basketball career is over. And, it could be an amazing "job" if you ask me. I would not complain at all. lol I mean who would not love the freedom of working how much you want and how long you want depending on your financial goals right? It is called FREEDOM. You are your own BOSS. :)

The second Steemit has helped me discover my talent and desire for writing, and inspiring people with my life stories and motivational posts and words. It has given me the opportunity to express my thoughts about life and world in general. Some of the stories I shared on Steemit I did not have the courage to express in real life. To anyone really. Those thoughts, stories, feelings, are TRUE ME. It has helped me express the emotions and feelings I had bottled up inside me for years. Which is incredibly liberating for me as a person in most incredible ways.

And, the last, and the most important way the Steemit has influenced my life in a positive way is that it opened up the opportunity for me to meet some amazing, kind, good-hearted people from all around the world. It has given me the opportunity to create friendships which I hope someday will transcend from the keyboard to a real life. It is the best way Steemit has influenced my life in a most positive way. The support I got from Steemit community is what the world should be. People helping each other, loving each other and sharing this adventure and a gift we all got called LIFE.

I got so much more from Steemit than I expected to get when I joined 7 months ago. More than I can ever imagine. Not in my wildest dreams I have expected to get so much. I am incredibly thankful for this platform and all the blessing it has given to me in my life. This platform has incredible potential to literally change the world, and I am incredibly excited about what the future will bring for Steemit.

So my amazing Steemians, help each other, motivate each other, and support each other. Let's create the world we want to see out there in real life right here on Steemit. Because it truly has the potential to do so. But, it is up to us make it happen. Who is with me?