Sometimes You Just Have To Hit Reset
I took a week off from blogging here on Steemit as a kind of creative reset...I guess it was ten days to be exact. Honestly, I’ve been feeling unsatisfied and generally unfulfilled with my blogging lately. This time away was sorely needed and it taught me a few things.
During my first six months writing on this platform in 2016 I published two posts per day religiously while working a full-time job, teaching meditation, and writing books. Eventually, this hectic schedule tapered off to at least one Steemit post per day for the next year or so after that.
Now that I’ve had a week off to reflect, I’ve decided that part of the problem has been a lack of time to devote to blogging. These days life is pulling me in quite a few new and exciting directions, which I love.
The other thing is Steemit is very a different platform than it was a year ago. Steemit has a much larger user base and is changing in countless other exciting ways. I haven’t been changing in that same direction.
Getting to the Root of the Problem
This disconnect I feel from my, once excited and genuinely engaged, readership is something I'd like to find a remedy for. I miss the thoughtful comments, the philosophical debates, the sharing of ideas. I miss exchanges beyond "I love your post, please upvote me."
Over the past two years my interaction with the Steemit community became an important part of my daily routine and I’ve missed it. My blog began in 2016 (a century ago in blockchain time) as this wonderfully experimental space to test new ideas and fiction but somewhere along the line some of that edge was lost and began to feel a little uninspired.
How Can We Make It Fun Again?
The truth is, none of us can follow the same path in a changing world and expect the same results. Life doesn’t work that way, we must evolve. I long for the days that looking at the Steemit feed was one of the first things I wanted to do in the morning. Maybe this is an unrealistic expectation.
During my week long reset I often asked myself How can I make this fun again? Stepping away allowed cognitive dissonance to recede into the background a bit and some new ideas to bubble up from the the well of creativity that is the subconscious mind.
What Will the Reset Entail?
I decided if I didnn't make some sort of drastic change then I would likely be taking increasingly longer breaks from Steemit, which would make me sad. Over the next few weeks I’ll be starting two new blogging projects that I’m really excited about.
The new first project, which was suggested by my wife, will be an interactive series allowing all of us Steemians from different generations to share some of our wisdom and stories with each other.
Another truth the struck me squarely between the eyes during my time away is I really miss teaching meditation classes. My next thought was, “Why not share your knowledge about meditation in some way via Steemit posts?” This is exactly what I plan on doing with the second series.
I invite you all to drop by my blog within the coming weeks to see how this new reset is working out! It will definitely be fun for me to try something a little different.
As always, I thank you for reading.
Yours in the Chain,
Eric
Please follow our official Steemit account for the film series @hardfork-series. Did you miss our last post? If so CLICK HERE to read it!
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Good luck with the new projects, Eric.
I can relate. My feelings toward Steemit have changed over the years (sometimes positively; sometimes negatively). On one hand, the surface can seem fake and insincere. On the other hand, once you meet the people behind the keyboards face-to-face, you realize there is a really special community working hard to make this place great.
I think growing pains and fatigue are inevitable, but I'm glad you're back with a clear vision.
Thank you, Wade! You're so right about the human-to-human connection factor being so valuable. All along it's been a community of caring and like-minded individuals working together to make Steemit great. Some of the best moments of my life originated here.
Love your post and I think every time you bring some value with it to the community it's worth staying in it. I've just started with steemit but I've been around instagram for a long time and I know how it feels when you see the autocomments or when you know for sure people don't read what you post, but you know what, every day I remind myself if what I post is something useful even if one person gets something out of it, it's worth it!!!
So having said that, I've been into a really powerful kriya/meditation practice for over a year now and I'd love to share more about it, why don't we do something together on this platform?!
Thank you @ommmsome! That's a wonderful point you make about connecting with even one person. I've practiced Kriya for about 23 years now and it's been amazing. I'd like to hear more about your practice!
let's do a post or something together here on steemit?! Maybe a Q&A kind of thing that could be useful for people who want to start practices?
It'd be interesting to compare our thoughts and experiences about a Kriya practice after one year and twenty three years. What led you to Kriya? I found it through Paramahansa Yogananda's writings.
Yes, definitely! You would have so much more to say though, hehe. Well, first of all we can start with what kind of kriyas do we practice and where did we learn them etc, eh? I'm a total newbie here so let me know how we can connect to get a post together :)
Being here as long as you are. I can totally sympathise with that. Feeling kinda burnt I do miss the first year at steemit all the excitement all the anticipation and the speculation is not longer here for me. I think it is safe to say that steemit is heading towards to mainstream adoption there is not much to expect other than it will be huge soon everything else just don't cut it for steemit's future. My personal goals are drifting me a bit away of my blogging a bit a time day by day. But that might be a good thing I was never aiming to be a big steemit blogger.
Anyway in the meantime I made a lot of friends all over the world something that wouldn't have occur without steemit. I mostly use it to log in and support my favorite authors these days and also find some new ones to follow at art tag mainly.
I am sure you will find a lot of interesting things to share you don't have to post every day just every now and then so we can check what you are up to.
Best of luck with everything man.
I think many of us early adopters are feeling similarly right now. The platform is moving in the direction that it must and the community feature might be the thing that allows Steemit to keep its more intimate feel during mass adoption.
Steemit (meet ups and SteemFests in particular) have been the cement that have created many lifelong bonds. I wouldn't trade the memories I've made over these past few years for anything in the world.
Thank you, @skapaneas!
@ericvancewalton, Don't need to worry about that. I'm and also your followers very satisfy about your blogging. So why you told us your blogging level was unsatisfying? Ok...You need to take rest. 01 week is much better. I appreciate you're really great teacher of meditation and religion especially Buddhist I know. Meditation very cleverly introduce from Buddhist religion.
Yep...I agreed with you eric currently steemit has huge user base and very harder to find and upvote every comments there. Someone did spam looking post and we all have to earn rewards very tough. But if you decided to seriously leave from steemit and you want to see your smiling face of you. Thanks for inspiration.
I noticed your blog had been a little quiet of late. I think we all need to press reset every now and then, and look at life beyond our screens.
A drive for me in 2018 has been working on new projects and collaborations with other people, on the Steemit platform and off it. That has kept me posting the last month or so.
Plus, I keep a 'to-do' white board by my drawing desk- updated with ideas and projects I'm working (and a few wildcards too) . On slow days I can pick up one of the projects off my list.
Collaborations are a great way to keep posting fresh and creative! This is what I intend on doing with one of the series I have in mind. It's going to be fun to make the blog an experimental space (of sorts) again! Hope you guys are doing well. Spring is just on the edge of breaking here!
I thought spring was on its way... but we are sheltering from the snow today.
HI @ericvancewalton, interesting to ponder what you say here and a few things occur to me -
Just thoughts, not sure if any of these ring true but I'm glad that you're reaching to find your "steam" for steemit. Both of your ideas sound really great!
I'll also say that I've been going through my own weighing of things here too and trying to find my feet amidst the huge growth. Keeping my presence meaningful by my own standards is really a challenge while I try to keep up with everything. I sometimes find myself getting frazzled trying to race around the platform curating and communicating and that certainly ISN"T satisfying! Plus my life is dizzyingly busy right now so time is squeezed to the max causing me to have to recalibrate too.
But I keep returning to my own maxim about steemit - make what I do here something that's so essential for my own personal growth that I'm compelled to return and engage regularly. It has to be cutting edge in my own life to sacrifice those hours which could be filled with many other wonderful things!
And equally important is to give myself permission to post only as much as I can manage and give only 1-2 hours a day rather than the 4-5 I'd like to. Then use that time carefully in the ways that are most satisfying. This is really important for me.
As always, I so enjoy your thinking and witnessing your process, you have my support and friendship no matter how you carve out your future!
You bring up some really brilliant and poignant points, Ruth! Most of my creative energy IS being poured into HardFork right now and it is so amazingly rewarding and fun but there isn't that immediate feedback loop with the project like there is with blogging. This series is going to be beyond epic when it's released so I just have to defer gratification, keep my head down and "keep on keeping on." I wouldn't want to trade this HardFork project for anything else.
I like your maxim about the platform and I've had an amazing time seeing you blossom on here. I was just sharing that thought with Johanna the other day.
I've taken breaks before but always have this nagging feeling that I need to write my next post. As one who definitely listens to his nagging voices I'll keep blogging until that voice stops prodding me forward.
Thanks so much for that wonderful support and friendship! You have mine as well!
some times you have to step away from everything in life to realise where you are at and where ultimately you would be like to be next, sounds like you just got into one of those lulls, i spent a similar amount of time last week doing the same about what video i wanted to put on dlive and dtube, now i know i'm going about it in a better way.
I'm so glad that your inspiration has been rekindled, it's good to take a step back at times and ponder the way forward!
I really look forward to both your series, especially the meditation series. Just imagine, you can reach people from all over the world right here on steemit, teaching this magical technique would be awesome as you'd be helping many many people.
Thank you for this!
Thank you very much @lizelle! I'm brainstorming now about the meditation series. I'm thinking the first post will debut this week. I really appreciate all of your support!
a very good post @ericvancewalton, the words you write this can be a very good motivation for the crowd. Especially for those who just joined in steemit. I also see that now there are so many people who like steemit, and steemit has now grown very far. I also have a hobby to write, and I also have a blog. Thank you for sharing and hopefully you will be more successful to work ... :)
You are a very good writer , you written all things in a beautiful method .
Thanks