Here I am, proceeding with the Task 2 of the Sndbox Summer Camp Quest, organized by @anomadsoul and @guyfawkes4-20, greatly supported by @Sndbox, @voronoi, and @hansikhouse.
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From @anomadsoul's post, Task 2 goes like this:
Analyze a situation in real life
It doesn´t matter if you are doing the Philo, Pshico or Socio Quest, pick a subject related to your area of expertise and break it down and find a correlation with the crypto environment. For example, making friends in real life and the psichological implications of being part of a social group, and translate that to the communities on Steemit - again, this is just an example, you can play with this task however you want.
I would like to be talking about the communities we are in, about The Attitudes of Empowerment and Entitlement in both real life and on Steemit. So, I guess it would be more of a sociological post but with some philosophical and psychological contexts as well.
Communities
Many people know me as a happy-go-lucky person in my younger days. I look carefree and it would greatly show I'm an entertainer in most groups/commmunities/cliques I'm in. I tried to make friends with everyone.
A few communities I'm active in are my church friends, old university friends and old housemates and my new Steemit local community #teammalaysia whom I'm getting to know. Besides #teammalaysia, I have also learnt to engage in communities like @steemitbloggers, @steemmamas, @steemsugars and the #googlyfamily. Learning about humans itself is an art that would probably never end. It involves a lot of heart, efforts, money and also time. These may be overlooked but all of the above are actually resources that we have as we invest back into humanity and relationships. As I grow, I realize that my resources are actually limited so I have also learnt to use them wisely, to prevent from emotional burnout. Maybe people have seen me less bubbly or less available. Through this growth process, I have learnt and met different types of people which lead to me sharing on two general types in this post.
The Attitude of Entitlement
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The last I checked Merriam Webster dictionary for the definition of ENTITLEMENT, it is defined as:
belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges
The attitude of entitlement to me speaks of a passive position in a relationship, almost like only on the receiving end. Sometimes in our relationship with people, there could be people who think they have nothing to offer so they would wait for someone to give. For instance, members in a church would wait for the pastor to give, visit and show concern to them all or in any other context, the members could be sitting and waiting for the leaders to act, even in politics, friends who think that everything has to be about them and etc. What is often done without active participation could be just giving judgmental comments on how things can be better. This makes me realize even more as my nation is going through an election soon. As much there are many criticisms and many decisions on migration, we may feel that we are entitled to a good government without doing much thing, entitled to the "benefits" as a church member because the pastors should know better, entitled to fidelity of our children because we have raised them up.
This attitude actually just put us in the back seat and honestly, I think it is jeopardizing the community we are in with the introspection it exhibits. That is because we are thinking that everything is about us and it has to be centered around us. It does makes us take things for granted easily as well and go into complacency. Since love is an obvious need in every human's life, it may even make us feel we are entitled for love, not knowing that actually we are loved, just because it is not shown in the way we want. Having said this, I'm guilty as charged too.
I think when I first joined Steemit, I was like that for a while because I felt like I knew nothing and I almost feel like I have nothing to contribute. So, I waited and see. In the first week after I joined, besides writing an effortless post of introducing myself, I did nothing. I didn't engage, I was just waiting since my husband told me this is a very rewarding platform. Obviously, I got nothing much in return. Two weeks later, I came out of my "shell" and started all over, discard my entitlement attitude but tried to think more on how I can contribute my thoughts or efforts. I learn more about upvoting, voting power, Steem Power (SP), bandwidth and most importantly, ENGAGEMENT. Instead of waiting for people to notice me, I can start empowering myself and whoever reads my post with the little motivations that I know of. Honestly, no one is obligated to actually upvote or support any of us. It cannot be because we belong to a certain community like #teammalaysia, we automatically think we are entitled for the support and those with higher SP have to upvote us.
The Attitude of Empowerment
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I was raised in a culture not knowing much about empowerment but more bound in a slave mentality. So the topic of empowerment is actually quite foreign to me until I attended church and also read up more motivational books. I used to think my happiness is so subjective that I cannot do anything about it. Nevertheless, even a slave can be raised to think more and more like a king.
EMPOWERMENT is simply defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as:
the act or action of empowering someone or something : the granting of the power, right, or authority to perform various acts or duties.
Empowerment makes a person not just "feel" powerful, but helps him or her make decisions in a powerful manner, doesn't push the blame to others in situations, own up responsibilities, offers kindness genuinely, and not living for other's approvals. In real life situations, having faith in someone will encourage the person to go further than he or she can. Empowerment is not just an attitude, it is a culture. It fuels one to discover new potentials and pushes him or her out of the comfort zone to know the maximum potentials. It goes beyond oneself and looks into the community one is in. Charity is something we do these days because everyone has the heart to give back to the community but it can be done either for a self-fulfillment (entitlement attitude again) or with empowerment wanting to make sure the other parties are benefited. However, the willingness to just look into others' lives and learn or give into is already a sign of being empowered.
There can be really good fruits birthed forth from such relationships even in new relationships. Recently, I was very touched by acts of kindness shown by my local Steemit community, as mentioned in @iamjadeline's post about new Steemit friends visiting her hospitalized son to root for their family, @zord189, @aaronleang and @joannewong. There is also @littlenewthings and @elizacheng fundraising for a relapsed stage 3 breast cancer patient. All these acts of kindness are actually very empowering and contagious.
Relating These Two Attitudes With Steemit
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Not a single user on Steemit is the same. Everyone of us has different experiences in life and have the eyes for different things. We have different interests and even speak different languages. Our perspectives on the same matter may also not be the same at all, which is what makes you and I valuable.
I have heard many cases of not having the whales or orcas or even dolphins notice us or a community. Instead of sulking and wait, let's start something! You can give what he or she or they cannot give! Instead of waiting for a huge upvote from the whales, why not learn more about how the mechanism of this platform works? I have so much to learn, even if they aren't my natural expertise or not naturally keen on. Throw away the entitlement attitude but put on the empowerment attitude! :)
I have also seen many new initiatives by the minnows or even planktons which are totally inspiring. One of which was the #popcontest by @karenmckersie about spreading positivity across this platform, which I absolutely enjoy reading. Another to be mentioned is the #googlyprize by @fraenk. Next not to be missed is @elizacheng's #makemesmile contest. There are many many more out there to empower us to uncover our potentials. We never know if we never try, just like this @sndbox Summer camp quest I'm trying my best in.
As I am finishing up this task, I just heard Mickey Mouse said this in his Mickey and the Roadster Racers' series:
Everybody has something to contribute.
And he is right! Diversity is strength.
One last philosophy of my life is this:
Working for love is a curse. Working from love is a ministry. ~ Kris Valloton
A change of attitude will make us go far in Steemit, because we make ourselves part of it, instead of waiting for it to serve us and merely just earning from it and forsake all the great communities. Get out from the back seat and take the seat of the driver but still abide by the traffic rules. They are there for a reason. winks
Thank you for reading this post of my Task 2. Stay tuned for Task 3. Yes, I found out about this quest really late, so I'm working on all the tasks in one breath!
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Animation By @zord189
