I've been pondering my online presence of late. My place in this weird wacky Steemit place we call home I suppose. I've had some successes, some failures. By all accounts I have done reasonably well for a five month old Steemian.
So why Do I feel like a Jack of All Trades, but Master of None?
I guess a lot of it has to do with time. I've put too many caps on, and they don't all fit right when they are one atop the other. I've tried to pull back somewhat on a few things. But everything I do is important to me. There is a little piece of me in each post, in each interaction, in each project I take on. So why do I feel less than ecstatic about my Steem Existence?
I was thinking long and hard about this today. I started to chalk it up to just a bad day. I was trying to kill it curating today so that I could get a few posts in tomorrow during the American Holiday, and have a good solid week without having to worry about curating during the work week, and it just felt like a tough curation day. So maybe that's all it was. Believe me, looking at the number of submissions versus the number of reviews on curie and then seeing the reviewed number go up but nothing pop up on the approved list when you have posts in review is a painful experience. But then I recalled a tweet I made a couple of days ago in response to something @ashleykalila had posted:
Well... there goes the idea that it is just a matter of having a bad day. Guess maybe it's a bad weekend?
Too many Hats
How many different types of things do you do on the Steem Platform? How many different projects are you involved in? 2? 3? a dozen? For myself, I haven't actually counted. So let's make a list.
- Curie Curator
- Fresh Five creator and Curator
- PR Writer for Buildteam
- Slothicorn advocate
- Crypto Researcher/Investor
- Plagiarism/Abuse Fighter - Protector of the Reward Pool
- Pseudo Mentor to people who DM me on Discord
- Engagement Proponent
- Life Blogger
- Fiction Writer
Ten seems like a good place to stop. There may be more. There are some that I was but have had to drop because of time constraints. Maybe this is the whole reason why people say you should find your Niche. When you spread yourself too thin you become the Jack of All Trades and Master of None.
I wonder, sometimes, if I am doing it wrong. There are people who started the same time as I did who are routinely making $50+ on everything they post. The only way I do that is by buying votes. But these folks got in the right circles, met the right people, and took off for the moon. That's all fine and good. I am happy for them, and despite what seems like grumping, I am quite happy with my results so far on Steem.
But what those people have done, that I haven't, is established themselves as part of one particular community or group. They found their Niche, they worked that Niche, and were rewarded for their participation.
I'm "part of" all sorts of groups. Here's another list for you, the Discord Servers I am a member of:
- Slothicorn
- Curie
- Steem-Engine
- Steemit Bloggers
- Whaleshares
- Minnowbooster
- SteemitBC
- TheWritersBlock
- MSP/PAL
- Promo-Mentors
- Steem USA
- Welcoming Committee
- Minnow-Power
But with all these groups, I don't have time for any of them! I feel like if I spend any length of time in one of them, I have lost that time I could have been doing something more productive. I am forgetting my own advice to new Steemians. Spend time getting to know other people. They can't upvote you if they don't know you are here. I'm making it easy for people to forget who I am by failing to put in the time in Discord.
I skirt around the edges of all these groups, popping in now and then to say Hi, but never really taking the time to form relationships with people. And therein lay the problem. If I don't form the relationships I am constantly advising new Steemians to form, how will I grow?
OOOOKAY..... So if I am going to devote more time to Discord, more time to forming relationships that help me grow... where do I steal that time from? The answer is, I don't know. And I feel like this is a self perpetuating circle. I'm a dog chasing his own tail.
I don't know if it is better Time Management I need? Or is it someone to look at the things I am involved with and weeding it for me so I can cut back on some of these things without feeling bad about it because I was told that I had to.
Maybe this is just my attempt to get something down in writing. Maybe my frustration really stems from not getting any fiction writing done today like I had hoped, because other things just got in the way. Speaking of things that got in the way, How about those Jaguars and Vikings huh? Pretty awesome!
Anyway.... there you go. Another Vent post I guess. I'm getting good at them this week. Hopefully there will be less bitching and complaining coming from me. Maybe I will find my muse tomorrow and get some real writing done. Until then... It can't always be sunshine and rainbows huh? LOL