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With the fluctuations in the markets, familiar patterns start to arise. While I am not much of a chart analyst, I do recognize the signs on Steem with new accounts commenting poorly and old accounts beginning to post after long hiatuses. It is okay, it all adds volume to the chain - *no harm, no foul.*

https://i.imgur.com/Kj0TslE.jpg

I don't personally live a regret-filled life, but I do know that I haven't made the best choices, as well as some very good choices in a number of areas that matter. Hopefully, the value of the good outweigh the cost of the poor decisions. When it comes to Steem, I have the same track record, with good and bad mixed in together, but one thing that I consider as a one of the best calls is remaining consistent in my participation.

I see this as a type of cost averaging where one is consistently buying at various points in the hope to lower the per unit cost. For example, I bought 200 STEEM in 2017 at $1.80 on the way up to $8, and held it all the way down. However, I have also bought several thousand Steem around the 11-13 cent mark more recently. I can't do the math on all the purchases, however, my per-STEEM-cost is much lower than the highs I paid.

Not only that, my participation has of course earned me more Steem to lower costs, as well as given me the opportunity to learn much more about the cryptosphere in general, while building my various skill and knowledge areas that can be used in a general sense in my real life. I see many things of value in Steem participation and it has helped my in real life direction in career, risk taking and investment approach.

That is my experience, but I wonder for many those who have been on hiatus during the bear, whether they will have some regrets. It is easy to look at it from the perspective of the *STEEM they missed out upon,* but I believe that there are more important factors in play than that, especially since Steem could have been bought relatively cheaply.

They say if you are going to spend on something, spend on experience, and I wonder what kind of experiences people have had while off Steem and whether what they have done has added to their life value, or has it been filler and grind. If it doesn't make you stronger, faster, better, does it have value at all? 

I believe that is something everyone on earth should reflect upon as we are incentivized by what improves us intuitively, even if we are not paying attention. This means it is easy for us to feel like we are advancing, even if we are not - much like in a game that progresses through levels doing very little of anything other than spending our most precious of resources available to us, *our time.*

Like the cost averaging, being consistent on Steem flattens out both the peaks and troughs of Steem experience and makes the pathway relatively smooth and far less dramatic. For me this is a good thing as I do not like the drama-queen approach to life and constantly trying to chase attention by any means necessary. Rather, I prefer the foundation building through small step processes of continual improvement, much like the Japanese kaizen philosophy toward business development. 

I didn't know of the kaizen concept until very recently, but it is something that I have essentially been living all of my adult life and the name of my own business would be synonymous. Life philosophy is not read from a book, it is lived, and a life can reflect a philosophy even when the concepts are unknown. I find that those who rely too heavily on learning concepts, tend not to spend too much time living them. '

I think this is where the *returned to Steem* users might one day question regarding their personal processes. Will they ever have that twinge of regret for not remaining active, will they feel some envy toward those who did? These feelings are not unique to Steem, they are common parts of human experience, and how we cope with them influences our next steps, much like continuous improvements can lead to large gains, and continuous degradation to utter failure. 

While I can spend my time talking about others here, it actually isn't about that at all. For me, it is a process of reflection as we can see ourselves in the behavior of others and often, we admire what we desire, and dislike what we recognize as our own. The easiest way to discover ourselves is to see ourselves in those we dislike and see what skills we could build in those we would like to be similar to. This is a risk management process where we can account for our personal weaknesses and direct our development path toward where we want to go. 

While there are no certainties in life outcomes, on average, consistency will outperform erratic behavior and the trick is to make sure that attention is paid to try to ensure the processes applied lead to where we want to go. Avoidance of the difficult and hard times might feel better in the moment, but there is an opportunity cost to every action, including every inaction.  

What happens when the cost of life outweighs the gain from it? From an investment perspective, that would be considered a bad investment. Every day our lives are made of thousands of investments of our time, energy and attention - some spend their more wisely than others - although all think they are making the right choice at the time. When looking at life, a long-view is needed.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

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