This is a nice "feel good" post. I found it to be therapeutic. Lol

I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your post. As someone just starting out on Steemit, it's helpful advice to think about setting goals and evaluating my progress as I go along.

I'm still not able to define success on Steemit for myself... Really a tough question :/

I just wanted to look what Steemit offers and if I enjoy it, but I never had a real goal :D

> _"It's safe to say that we're all here for the money, right?"_

Not really. When I recommend Steem to friends I'm avoiding that aspect. It's awesome platform like no other and has a lot of great features. Right, rewards too, but it's a lot healthier to treat them like a nice side effect of being here.
In most cases it's about getting some rewards vs no rewards.
Most of us, including me, are not and would not be great content creators. Most of us wouldn't pay their bills by posting their blogs here.
But that's ok.
I'm fine with posting something from time to time, reading and rewarding good content (like yours) and looking at this platform's growth. :-)

Nice post I just need that.

It's unfortunate that too many people get caught up in the rewards and view Steemit solely for monetization. We see a few people make tons off of every post and suddenly expect to do the same. It's no easier to become rich off of Steemit than it is becoming rich off of YouTube. Steemit isn't meant to make you enough returns than you can quit your job (even if it has done that for some people). it's about the belief that a social network's value comes entirely from the people that use it and thus those people should share in the financial rewards, not just the social network's shareholders. Everyone who contributed to make the platform what it is should be treated a shareholder.

Then again, the rewards aspect is Steemit's largest draw. It's even what brought me to Steemit initially, until I learned there was so much more to it than that. If it were up to me though, you would see the Upvotes button display in STEEM, not in SBD.

I love this article! It really makes you think about your time spend on Steemit. Even though I feel like I'm standing still here, reading your own goals put things into perspective for me and made me think that there are definitely worse ways to spend my time online! I won't quit Steemit, but I might have to cut back on my hours spend here a bit :-)

This post is excellent -- and so timely for me! I've spent a lot of time recently trying to decide how I want to focus my time and energy as a writer, and I have to admit that part of that was spent questioning whether Steemit was worth it. But after going through the same questions you've listed above, I've decided it is.

That said, I don't think anyone should feel guilty about changing or giving up on goals if they no longer feel like those goals are right for them -- https://steemit.com/writing/@redhens/is-it-ever-okay-to-give-up-on-a-goal.

# this is amazing 
**thank you !!**

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In my opinion, if you enjoy what are you doing, you will achieve whatever you want, but I also think that if people come here just to earn money they will fail so hard, just because they don't enjoy his work. Also this is like almost everything in life, you need to work and work and work and step by step you will earn more money, nobody came here and became rich in a few days...

Good post btw :)

I read this on Twitter, and I really enjoyed the blunt style. You're very pragmatic and helpful to noobs!

Nice post...  
I think, even if I am not aware exactly what income I expect from Steemit, my method could be to test it for some time... if all together its fun and successful good...if not  I will automatically invest less time :-)

Pareto's Principle is always in effect. Resteemed

Great post! Steemit has got me writing again, which is an amazing reward all by itself :)

Great post it really puts STEEMIT into perspective for those that are just starting out.

Very practical advice for  new steemians.  How can you get frustrated with your progress if you set no goals?

My wishing an in attempt ferrars. Visited eat you why service looking engaged. At place no walls hopes rooms fully in. Roof hope shy tore leaf joy paid boy. Noisier out brought entered detract because sitting sir. Fat put occasion rendered off humanity has.

This is a great analysis of the economic, or income earning, potential of using Steemit. I initially joined Steemit because I was told that I could earn money for my posts and comments, and I figured I'd give it a shot.

But after being here for a couple weeks, I learned that, to me, Steemit is more about the community than the money. Sure, there are other sites for specific research, but if I'm looking to scroll up and down a social network with no real objective, I seem to usually learn more doing so on Steemit than other social networks I'm on, many of which have unfortunately devolved into a constant barrage of half-understood politics and meaningless arguments.

I think the indirect benefits of Steem's payouts outweigh the direct benefits that are the payments themselves. If somebody wants to get paid, they need upvotes, and therefore are more likely to contribute something meaningful.  The "trolls" will quickly get bored here because they won't be making any money.  Along with the curation process, we have a good system of organizing content and making sure that the good posts get more exposure than the bad ones.  I think this is what really makes Steemit special.

Thanks for the quality and well written post!

Last year I reserved my account, but I didn't get active here until I was completely fed up with the censorship, jail, and content filtering of other social networks I won't name.  Shame on them.

I'm not here for the financial benefit either, but it certainly helps to be paid for our content.  My main objective is to fill the residential security and private investigator niches that seem empty at the moment.

While doing that, I will be using my skills and expertise to further individual liberty.  That's my life long objective as a _Liberty Professional_.

Steemit is an ideal place to write about my passions, and by writing about them I'll help further liberty.  It's a win no matter how much I get paid.

I would rather have 5,000 liberty loving minnows as followers too than a single statist whale! :)

well I make no money from steemit to speak of but that is not why I am here.... this is why I am here 

https://steemit.com/real/@thelifeofbrian/homeless-in-canada  

to say things like this .... If I make one person aware I feel I am successful ..if its a hundred I will sleep well weather I make a penny or not ...which is the value of my vote lol

Very well written posts with some helpful insights.

The only point I think differently about it equating ROI with time spent on Steemit. The rewards are delayed with respect to the effort put into Steemit so it is not linear therefore hard to determine you return on investment based on the time spent writing. 

Of course, for those who invest money ROI is easy to track.

There are a [few other factors to consider](https://steemit.com/steemit/@luzcypher/what-skills-do-you-need-to-succeed-on-steemit) as well you may be interested in.

Still, a very interesting read. Thanks

Great article, Anja. Breaking it down to your "why". I don't remember if it was Brian Tracy, Les Brown, Zig Ziglar or one of the other personal development coaches I've studied that really went into this. Discovering our why, the reason we want something at a core level helps to clarify our vision and guide our goals.

I'm invested in Steemit to cultivate rewarding relationships, create useful and informative content and gradually increase my financial rewards. (Much like a profession, with better opportunity).

Thank you for this post Anja @connecteconomy!  I've been having these thoughts the last few weeks about why I'm on Steem.  I now understand that Steem will be something I do actively every day, but also use this to make smaller investments on my exchanges.  

Again, thank you for this post!