Why I joined and will stay with ILLUMINATION

Dear Illuminators, Are Your Filaments Burning Bright?

Or are your lights flickering under the desire to be successful?

“Everything in moderation. Nothing in excess,” ~Socrates

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6915567

Have you ever had a project or hobby which turned into an all-consuming pastime?

Did you consider it a boon or a bane? I’m fifty-fifty on this answer. Being so focussed on what I’m doing with Illumination passes the time so quickly. But I’m not doing the other activities I used to love doing.

Springing out of bed in the morning to jot down a headline — I think in headlines — is a super start to my day. I got up at 5:50 AM today. Twenty-five minutes before my alarm to let all of my thoughts spill out onto the pages of my day per page diary. But by 21:00 my eyelids won’t stay up.

When you can see no end to your latest desire do you feel blessed or cursed?

Everything in moderation, including moderation. ~Socrates

Something I need to consider (and actually do) if I’m to remain sane.

When my passion for writing found its wings at the start of 2020, I jumped in feet first.

I was in the zone to the exclusion of friends family exercise and personal hygiene. I lived in my PJs. Sometimes I didn’t brush my teeth until after lunch. Shock horror!

In January, I wrote more than I read. Finding my feet. I earned $5.

In February, I discovered the joy of reading, clapping, and responding. I was rewarded with $15.

March was the start of ILLUMINATION and also two weeks of self-isolating for me, so for a while, there was not a lot of much going on. Oh, except for gaining a first curation and being invited to join a new publication! Earnings were down to $10.

So far in April, I am at $30.05!

I’m not in this for the money, obviously. But it is exciting to see the figure double since January because of our wonderful new community.

So why am I spending almost every waking hour — unless I’m forced to do my taxes, prepare sustenance or keep my weekly phone calls with my friends and family — reading, tweeting, posting, retweeting, responding, Slacking and now recording videos in practice for my Youtube testimonial written by the good Dr.?

I must be mad, right?

There is no termination point for this rollercoaster. Like the scene out of Requiem for a Dream, where the housewife can’t see the slimming pills she’s taking to make her beautiful are actually stealing her life.

She and I are addicted. I might have exaggerated a tad here. But the film is brilliant if you haven’t seen it. Sara Goldfarb, the character, continues on the hamster wheel of amphetamines to get slim so she can wear a red dress on her favourite game show. I have been chasing my dream and have become addicted to claps, reads, and responses — the giving of and receiving.

My reasoning

I have total admiration for Dr Mehmet Yildiz who works full-time as well as managing this exceptional publication. You can tell he cares deeply about his creation and the success of us all.

I know from reading much of his work that he is an incredibly organised and efficient man.

I am not. I can see what I need to do and do it. I’ll streamline it to make it easier and list the priorities, but other than trawling through all my published work I couldn’t tell you how many of anything I’ve published. Nor do I know what I’ve published elsewhere. I put that off, preferring to focus on writing, reading, responding, tweeting, posting and Slacking.

Now is the time for me to pause and review my actions.

I think I might be a bit obsessed. Last night, I had to shut down my computer without interacting with any of the six articles I had open. I had reached saturation.

There is indeed life outside ILLUMINATION

Not much, admittedly, but I’m so behind in my Netflix viewing that I miss it. I love TV shows and movies. They are my downtime in the evenings. Before I go to bed and read.

Too much stimulation from Medium and ILLUMINATION keeps me awake. Fantastic for the daytime not so hot at bedtime.

I must set boundaries and time limits. I know Dr Mehmet does. He is super efficient and uses his time to the optimum. E.g. three hours per day for reading. Whereas I just keep going, like the Duracell bunny. Regardless of how tired, grumpy but too awake to sleep I am.

The ridiculous aspect of this is that I knew I should stop but was driven, as was Sara Goldfarb by the image of herself on the game show, by a vision of myself sitting on my balcony in Porto, Portugal with my cup of coffee and typing away on my laptop.

According to several highly successful people, visualising your goal is supposed to be a positive tool to realise your dream. I admire Stephen Covey’s view, which matches well with Dr Mehmet’s vision for us to be achieved by his well thought through, tested and successful purposes and principles.

“In effective personal leadership, visualization and affirmation techniques emerge naturally out of a foundation of well thought through purposes and principles that become the center of a person’s life.” — Stephen Covey

Actions

I should record my activities. But I’m not that kind of woman. I like going where my whims take me. Much like getting lost and discovering things I’d never have found if I knew where I was going. This approach only gets me partway to where I’d like to be next year.

This morning I awoke knowing I wasn’t being sensible. I was following my passion but passions wane and leave me empty and sad.

I don’t want to lose this rocket-powered momentum that has been lit beneath me and everyone in this incredible publication.

We are heading for the stars.

I believe the work we put in now and this year will create dividends in 2021. I am determined to be there.

From today, I am planning my time.

Kevin Buddaeus produced a writing spreadsheet template. I’m going to make use of it. If you join Slack you can find the file there.

I’m going to work smart, not on whims, because I’d rather not fizzle out like a damp firework on a foggy November 5th.

I’m getting plenty of walking in on a daily basis. I get dressed, brush my teeth and go out to work five days a week.

At the moment, I’m getting paid to sit at a desk to take one or no calls per day. Apparently there will be a spike in early May.

I am trapped in a call centre that allows me to do all my ILLUMINATION reading, tweeting, responding and clapping, as well as interacting on Slack. I’m also writing up whatever sparks illuminate the light bulb in my head.

In answer to my questions at the start

This opportunity with ILLUMINATION and the good Dr is a boon.

I am blessed to be part of an amazing, unique, and powerful community of diverse writers. With a leader whose values are:

“Our values: diversity, synergy, fusion, and serendipity are based on universal principles.”~Dr Mehmet Yildiz

I wouldn’t give up this exciting adventure for Netflix. Would you?