When I started on Steemit a month ago, I had no idea what I was in store for.
I knew blockchain technology is going to be a huge wave and somehow needed to get in on it - and when I discovered Steemit, it seemed like a great opportunity to get my feet wet. I dove in, without expectations.
When payday came, I confess - it was awesome. I made more money through 3 weeks writing than I've ever made in the same amount of time in my entire life. That was awesome. But, as more & more time was invested into the platform, I realized something profound was happening...
I waschanging.
Not a superficial change. Something deep within myself was undergoing a transformation.
Steemit had managed to not only become the new focus of my addictive personality - it had hacked my brain. For the better.
While my first couple weeks on Steemit I was focused on the profit potential, a shift had occurred along the way. I wasn't the same person as when I started.
My perception of the world was different. My attitude was different. My thoughts & beliefs were different. And my actions were different.
I'd done lots of writing before on Facebook & blogs. But a couple weeks into my Steemit journey, a creative flow was unleashed unlike anything I've ever experienced.
The more I got rewarded, my subconscious began grasping a game-changing insight: the potential to create and share value here is a whole different ballgame. The further this realization sunk in, the more my commitment grew to being a person of value. AND the more I backed that commitment up with action - writing content to really make a difference for those reading it, in some way or another.
Of all the writing I'd done previously, most of it was self-centered - reflections upon what I thought was important, what I felt people should know. And there was never any significant incentive to extend myself to inquire what others really valued and provide them such. Sure the "thumbs up" were gratifying to the ego, but never provided any real quality feedback as to what extent I was impacting readers.
Steemit... A totally different monster...
At first, I was just testing out different kind of posts, not sure what would actually get rewarded. The more I posted, an effect of the system took hold and overrode all my confusion & self-doubts:
Steemit offered DIRECT measurable feedback on what I put out.
The reward figures became a way to understand what types of content others appreciated and valued. And seeing the differences between what various posts made setup up a feedback loop for my brain to easily grasp what was more/less valuable to the community - not in silly thumbs up or down, but in concrete numbers accurately representing others' interest, belief, faith, and appreciation to the degree they were willing to commit to compensating what I'd written.
As all this feedback penetrated my thick skull and shone light on what exactly the value was I had provided for others, something activated:
A sincere desire to generate more of what others expressed their appreciation for.
Yes, the money was cool. But what has been even cooler is making an impact upon readers.
And ya know how they say it takes 21 days to wire the brain into a new habit? I think that's legit. Because during the first 3 weeks continuously interacting with a system that's given such feedback, my entire relationships with social media, writing, sharing, money, and giving have significantly evolved. In alot of ways, I feel like I've undergone years of maturation - completely recontextualizing what it means to be a valuable member of society.
Sounds extreme? Perhaps. In actuality, the shifts have been subtle. Yet no less powerful.
Through The Valley Of Disillusionment, To Discovering The Formula For Success
I must confess that the first couple weeks before the shifts occured, I got discouraged seeing what seemed at the time like very inequal rewards. Short, poorly-written, boring introduceyourself posts getting 50x what my well-written interesting one did - pictures of tits getting hundreds - super short copy & pasted news stories getting thousands. None of this affirmed my confidence that rewards were distributed fairly here. And I was tempted to think that if some bimbo can flash her ass and earn 10x what I did for a elaborate, insightful post that took hours to compose - maybe this wasn't the place where my value would be recognized and rewarded.
Thankfully, I persisted through that discouragement. The more I experimented, I rechannelled that discouragement and committed to simply putting out the best writing could. And the more I put out, the more I was convinced that value is rewarded - and that I was capable of producing value in/for this community.
Given I did want to make a profit, I set the intention to implement everything I was learning along the way, upgrading my skill with every post. As I integrated the wisdom gained through both my failures and successes, I eventually realized that there were certain ingredients to a successful post - five to be exact - and could see what makes a story a winner or a flop.
The more I proved this success formula to myself - ensuring to maximize the 5 types of value invested in each story and experiencing rhe rewards feedback - the greater my courage grew to expand my comfort zones by posting stories expressing vulnerabilities and aspects of my experiences I'd previously withheld due to insecurity. And, voters responded positively.
Not only was I steadily growing my account size, I was opening up to explore and share new parts of myself - and inspiring others to do the same. It was a win-win all-around - and continued fueling an upward expansion. It wasn't just my own success I was creating - I was also contributing to the success of the community by passing on valuable lessons serving others to increase their success.
And somewhere along the way, I really got it:
The formula for success is serving others in their success.
I had known this intellectually before. But actually experiencing it through my growth process on Steemit took the lesson from an idea to part of who I am.
Powering Up...
I noticed another real big shift in the way my brain was working a few days ago, after reinvesting some Steem Dollars into Steem Power...
When I paid attention to how my voting power was increasing, something happened at a deep level that fundamentally altered my outlook on the nature of giving and community.
Though I'm not proud to admit it, I'd first only looked at Steem Power as a means of investment to benefit my own profitability. I didn't really care much about how much my votes were worth in rewards to others.
Yet, there was a turning point.
When I saw that my votes actually started having an impact on others' rewards balances, there was a sense of warm satisfaction at having contributed to the compensation for their creativity, insight, passion, and service to this community.
Suddenly, I wanted to give more.
Redefining Power...
I had brought some skepticism when I first got on Steemit. I'd been through various "online business opportunities" and the world of MLM before, where I'd encountered manipulative sales tactics - and hence, was doubtful of the legitimacy of this venture and pondered whether it was merely an evolutionary form of the classic Ponzi scheme. As such, when everybody was advising to "Power Up" and put funds in for the long term, my distrust clouded my perception - disabling me from understanding how it all really worked.
I grasped the concept that more Steem Power = more voting power. But at the time, I didn't get what "power" itself really meant. Perhaps that misunderstanding also came from preconceptions I had brought forward from previous experiences - and from cultural definitions of "power" as status and position within hierarchical establishments, where "power" has been well-known to be abused and misdirected for self-gain at the cost of others.
But... By getting my hands on some of this "Steem Power," my outlook began straightening out. And as I've reflected through writing this, I see that playing within this playground with this new, increasing "power" is helping to write a new definition of what "power" truly is:
The ability to beneficially impact others.
Of course, this is what the founders had in mind for this entire venture. And that's been part of the ideology/philosophy behind Steemit that sold me on it in the first place: the potential of this power-generating system to financially-empower individuals, both in their giving & receiving of value.
Yet, to actually have the hands-on experience exercising this power to gift others a monetary appreciation with a click of a button - seeing rewards going into their accounts, at no personal loss to my own account... It did something to me. It rewired my brain with a whole new understanding of the power of giving.
Reframing Abundance...
In honesty, I'm a bit ashamed to admit that despite years of talking about wealth as though I knew what I was talking about, I've lived most of my life with a scarcity mindset.
It's driven allmy choices, from what to choose on a restaurant menu, to wearing a pear of underwear as long as possible so as to save a few cents on the cost of putting them through laundry, to not getting out of the house to go experience life and hang out with friends because doing so requires an output of (scarce) money. And frankly, it's really sucked - creating a shitty experience of life, and throwing a real sourness into my relationships.
Yet, the past few weeks on Steemit, this fundamental outlook of "there's not enough money" has been slowly & surely changing - and surprisingly not even so much because of what's been flowing into my account as due to the experience of rewarding others through Powered-Upped votes.
As odd as it might sound, engaging in the Steemit system has been changing my brain's chemistry. Participating in an environment where the results of giving are immediately measurable and what goes into another person's pocket doesn't come directly out of yours - it's gotta be a sort of a mind-fuck, for someone who's only ever experienced an act of financial giving to decrease their own financial balance.
Frankly, I'm struggling for words to describe it - because it's not even something that can be described. It's something that needs to be experienced for oneself to truly get. But it's an experience that's really shaken up my preconceived notions about scarcity & abundance.
Granted, I haven't fully weeded out that old scarcity mindset yet. But, I have been noticing small - yet significant - differences in my attitude towards money...
For example, in Bali, there's a lot of places that charge for parking, many of which didn't used to a few years ago. A lot of the time, I've had resistance coming up to paying - just the same old rigidity around spending any money. Pretty friggin' silly, really as the cost is usually either $0.10 or $0.20. Bank-breaking, yes, I know. Though lately, my resistance has been disappearing. As I've gotten used to enjoying giving people a few cents with a vote on Steemit, so I've also kinda been learning to like giving the parking guys a few cents - looking it as a way to express gratitude for the island and put money back into Bali's economy, at the smallest scale.
Or coming camping today, we had a couple guys drive us 1km down to the site and help carry our stuff - for which they quoted us a price of $1 each. Usually, I'd prefer not to part ways with any money at all - yet when it came time to pay, I felt bad at the thought of giving them so little and gave them $5 instead. Small stuff, yes. But, experiencing a new sense of freedom around money in these smallest of life's daily encounters goes a long way in the bigger picture towards sustainable peace of mind & happiness.
And all because of Powering Up.
That might seem like a plug or hype to some. But nonetheless, this is part of the impact Steemit has had on me.
So how has Steemit rewired my brain to become a better person?
Basically, it's served as a training system.
It allows for the delivery of excellent feedback that has massively accelerated my self-awareness of what is and isn't valuable to others. And with the incentivization in place, such feedback quickly fuels an adjustment of behavior conducive to becoming an increasingly valuable member of the community.
It provides a means of developing a deeper understanding of value through a straightforward, hands-on interface through which different forms of value can be (nearly) instantaneously created & exchanged - serving to integrate powerful insight into the nature of contribution & collaboration into one's perceptual frameworks and habits of action.
I know that sounds rather technical & overanalytical. (My mind is quite mechanical at times, very detail-oriented). But there's no need to go to far into it. Simply, it's just easier to JUST DO IT and experience for oneself what can't be put into words.
Life is always rewiring our brains. For many people who repeat the same patterns day-to-day and go about the same old routines, not much is rewired - just well-run neuropathways reinforced.
Yet, when we break out of habitual ruts to engage in fresh experiences, new neural networks are formed - new connections made - new vision opening up - new creative potentials blooming.
There has never been a blockchain-based, cryptocurrency-incentivized social media platform like Steemit before. It's a whole new environment. It breaks us out of the mental ruts we've been stuck in after years on Facebook.
Inevitably, exploration in such an innovative space is bound to shake up, expand, shatter, challenge, and upgrade our mental constructs of the world. Taking the time to adapt to such a leading-edge socio-economic-collaborative system is pretty much guaranteed to stretch one's neurosphere.
For some people, Steemit might just be a new space to keep up their old trolling habits or bitch & complain about how unfair it is that the whales are an "elite" with all the voting power. So be it. For me, engaging my talents & passion to make the most of this opportunity and create value for others has been a transformational process. Truthfully, it has made me a better person.
So make what you will of it. Though if your mind & heart are open, this is quite the space to play around in and rewire your brain to continuously become a better, upgraded version of yourself through producing outstanding value for others and the community.
Now get to it... ;-)