Mini Motivation #69 - The Heart of a Volunteer

Dedicated to the community builders of teammalaysia - @bitrocker2020, @littlenewthings, @elizacheng, @aaronleang, @joannewong, @karinzdailygrind, @zord189, @orangila, @danieldoughty, @wilsonkoh, @veenang, @davidke20 and probably more, but hey, you guys missed at the epic hangout last night :)

Yesterday as I had dinner with a few of the active team members of teammalaysia, we were reminded that despite being able to earn some cryptocurrency when organizing community initiatives (if we create content around the events), we weren't really doing it for the money.

Over the past few months of being on Steemit, I have been asked many times (and I'm sure so has the other community builders of teammalaysia), if we're "full time" on Steemit. That's because to others, sometimes they don't really see the value of spending time on something that they won't get paid (furthermore in real "money").

Sure, we earn Steem when we engage on the platform (creating and curating contents), but truth is, we could have done it without running any of the offline events and initiatives. Meetups, workshops, intro talks, themed events (steem-music, myjuniors, etc) all take time and effort to run. And truth be told, we may collect commitment fees, but that's just to cover for the cost of the events, and the extras were donated anyway. We hardly get compensated for our personal expenses towards the events anyway.

I can understand why others would question our efforts, because really, why would we spend time on something that's not "deemed" worthwhile? Why not just rest up our feet, spend time with our families, go shopping even?

That's where we usually take the opportunity to educate them, that we're doing it for more than just money. Shared interest, camaraderie, a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose, education, we all have our own reasons, and trust me, it has hardly anything to do with money. Why? Because if it is, we'd be doing other more "productive" stuff - creating contents, planning what to write, earning curation rewards etc.

Such is the heart of community builders and volunteers, and over the years of being involved with community builders, I can say it's in the genes too. Sure, we all need money to pay the bills, which is why we still have our day jobs. The key difference is how we spend the extra time we can afford in the evenings and weekends.

Look, I can go on to explain the intrinsic rewards you'll get when you take part in community building, but nothing beats rolling up your sleeves and dipping your feet in the water.

So if you really want to know how it feels like, and want to experience something that truly money can't buy, then volunteer yourself in one of the community initiatives, or take part in initiating one yourself.

There's a chance that after doing so, you may walk away with nothing, which is fine, because at least you've tried it, and know it's not for you. Curiosity satisfied.

But, on the off chance that you do feel something stirring within at the end of the event - a sense of satisfaction knowing you've contributed, the happiness when others thank you for doing a good job, a round of applause for a job well done - then my friend, you will then understand the drive within us, the fire that fuels every community builder, and the heart of a volunteer.

Mini Motivation is my own daily strategy to inspire myself. Mostly 3 minute reads.

From Motivation, we gain Inspiration. From Inspiration, we achieve Momentum. And the rest, they say, is history.

Hope it helps nudge you a bit too in the right direction.

Oh it did? Let me know in the comments, and of course an upvote would be a nice motivation for me. :)

Stay awesome!

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by. I mostly blog about Steemit Success Strategies, business, marketing, entrepreneurship, psychology, community and random thoughts.

Talking about Steemit Success Strategies, if you want to 10x your results on this platform, perhaps some of these guides will be able to help you.

At least once a month, I run Steemit community events and training workshops with my buddies at #teammalaysia too. Some examples are:

I'm also grateful to be part of #steemitbloggers , SmartSteem and the sndbox.

_{Animated Banner Created By @zord189}

Wait, why's Mav posting on Steemit nowadays?

Well, unlike other blogging and social media platform, Steemit is the only platform that allows me to earn cryptocurrency when I engage with it. Yup, one Steem is about USD5, and you, too, can earn Steem Dollars every time you:

Create content (articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos, photos)
Upvote (like) other people contents
Comment on other people's posts
Have discussions, share opinions etc!

Yup, basically it's the very same thing you're doing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc all along!

The only difference? For once you can earn a nice income on the side!

Sign up for a free Steemit account, and you can thank me by coming back and upvoting this article. And guess what, you will earn Steem too for doing that! #awesome