Community over Competition
#communityovercompetition. The Rising Tide Society understands the pressure of creating original content, maintaining an online presence, and supporting other creatives in the process. They created this hashtag in order to recognize the importance of community (a group of people with a common goal) and its emphasis over competition (the constant need to be better than others).
In my blogging journey, I've consulted others about post ideas, Instagram filters, and overall aesthetics. Without this process of open innovation, I wouldn't have had the strength to keep up. I thrive in a community of support, and that is what the social media world provides for us.
It can be an isolating process to constantly brainstorm ideas, posts, and reasons to engage my audience. Why do I do it? I love the feedback, I love the connection, and I love the people. It's exhilarating to read other people's writing, and I want to inspire that sort of social action in my readers.
We all need encouragement in our lives. Whether it's a sweet text or note from a friend when you're having a bad day or a public declaration of love, we crave this sense of commitment. The best feeling in life is to know that someone will unconditionally be there for you in your time of need.
Nature will always be there for you.
My ideal form of encouragement is motivational quotes. I absolutely love a perfectly crafted sentence or few sentences that sum up a thought, a minute, or a day in my life. My favorite motivational quote is "Being busy is being productive. Being productive is useful. Be useful." This comes from a book entitled The First Day of the Rest of My Life by Cathy Lamb.
Other quotes that I enjoy:
"That's what I like about photographs. They're proof that once, even just for a heartbeat, everything was perfect."- Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult (one of my absolute favorite authors, and I got to see her speak in Greenville a few years ago)
"When I'm ready to stop, it's that simple: I set my toe pick on the ice and the world around me halts, immediate, soundless, a snowflake alighting on the soft shoulders of November."- Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler (I absolutely love skating, and this is a perfect explanation of the feeling of the ice)
"How do you not like the Internet? That's like saying, 'I don't like things that are convenient. And easy. I don't like having access to all of mankind's recorded discoveries at my fingertips. I don't like light. And knowledge.'"- Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (if you haven't read any of her books, you're missing out)
And to end with the ever eloquent John Green in The Fault in Our Stars, "I believe that the universe wants to be noticed. I think that the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed."
Where is your universe? Treasure your support system, your own personal universe.
Lucky Strike of the Day: I had a fabulous cupcake in my class this afternoon, and it left a chocolate glow over the rest of the day.
