“The journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step.” is a saying attributed to Laozi. He’s regarded as the founder of Taoism and the author of “Toa Te Ching”.
It’s a quote I’ve often heard to encourage someone to start a difficult task or journey. Another phrase for the same purpose is “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” - no idea who the source for that is.
On January 1, 2023 I took the first step on a journey that has brought me to today. For the last 500 days I have published a post of some kind on Hive.
Lately, most of my posts are on dBuzz.
My dBuzz posts are my Daily Echoes. I’ll talk about them more next month when I reach 365 days of publishing them. The short story for them is — every day I begin with a word, then I create an image in Midjourney to represent the word and its meaning. Then I write a quote to resonate with the image.
The words come from the Prompt A Day emails I send subscribers every day. I create the prompts once a month. It was an interesting coincidence that today’s word was “Journey”.
It has indeed been a journey. We’re all on a journey in life. Some of us notice the journey segments more than others.
This segment started months before Jan 1, 2023. I’ve blogged for many years, usually on my own blogs. I was inconsistent. I’d publish regularly for a while and then I’d trail off to nothing.
In 2022 I joined @alessandrawhite’s Creative Work Hour and found I was starting to be more consistent with my creativity. I started my newsletter, Nicheless & Loving, which published weekly. Even had a streak where I published content every day for over 200 days.
In December 2022 I noticed a badge appear on @hivebuzz, a new badge. It would be awarded to people who’d published every day for the year.
Now, that intrigued me. I decided I would give it a try and see how the year went. I completed it and kept right going into 2024.
Early in 2023, AI started to really come to public awareness. I was intrigued to learn more about it and to try it out. My first venture into it was using Midjourney.
At the time Midjourney had the trial allowing you to generate 25 pictures for free. I loved that it was in Discord and that I could invite the bot to my server.
I burned through the free images quickly, took out a subscription and burned through the first level almost as fast. I was hooked and wanted to learn how to make this bot work well.
Some of the posts I wrote were about Midjourney. In mid-June I started creating what has become known as the Daily Echo. The first 2-3 hours of my day is taken up creating the image and crafting the quote that accompanies it.
I have some non-Hive projects underway. One is using some of the images not used for the daily image to create digital products with. I’ll write about them soon.
One project I want to get back to is writing reflections based on the images. It’s been a year of not only learning new words and how to visually present them, but also understanding the symbolism that each word can reflect.
I love having so many creative ideas I’m working on, even if having time for them all is a struggle.
I’ve created a habit of making sure I publish every day. Making that my first priority every day motivates me to move from that post to the next item on my list, getting things done, even if the progress is gradual.
Shadowspub writes on various subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use, like journals, notebooks, colouring books, etc. Her Nicheless Narrative podcast airs on Thursdays each week.
NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all images are the author’s. AI generated images were in Midjourney, for which I hold a licence to use the images commercially.
How to Connect With ShadowsPub:
Visit me at Shadows Central to find out what I’m up to.
Pimp Your Post Thursday (PYPT):
join us on the DreemPort Discord12pm EST Thursdays
Get eyes on your content and meet new friends. Join DreemPort.
Shadows, I love the continuity of your efforts over the last 500 days.
I remember your keenness to shampoo, rinse and repeat your way to your first @hivebuzz daily post badge. I was like, “wait, what??
My favorite thing about it was that you were so open to the nature of the posts changing, but steadfast in posting daily. That openness, I believe, conserves energy and maximizes creativity.
I’m proud to see you develop your craft as your support Hivians, Dreemers, and the crew of Creative Workers.
Congratulations, dear friend!! 🎉
Thank you @alessandrawhite ... it doesn't happen in a vacuum. I've received a lot of support to. Thank you.
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I had thought about the same thing when this year 2024 started, but here in Venezuela power outages affect a lot, and sometimes we spend more than 8 hours without electricity, and that limits me to create content every day.
dBuzz is a good way to do something fast, in a short format for our followers, I haven't used it for a while and I have focused more on creating long format content or using the threads on Inleo.io.
I also gave much use to the images with the discord bot Midjourney, gives very good results, but then I moved to the images created by Bing AI, greetings to you and I hope you continue with this goal of making a publication every day.
challenges like losing power unexpectedly is never fun.
Dbuzz posts can be fast or they can take the 2-3 hours that mine take. Most of that is generating images until I find the one that works for that day.
Have you considered doing some writing while you're offline and then scheduling several days ahead as a buffer against the power outages?
I have thought about that on many occasions, but it is difficult for me, because I always try to make my articles about current trends in the crypto world, so I can not schedule a post for a long time because by the time I publish it then the news will have already gone out of fashion.
hehehehe so proud of you!!!!! Here is to 500 more!!! :)
okay .. now you did it.. I had to go figure out when Day 1000 is -- September 27, 2025 .... and on the way I figured out day 750 is January 20, 2025
Congratulations on your 500-day consistency streak!!! That is amazing, astonishing, motivating, and inspiring! 😍
I have tried to be consistent to get multiple #HivePUM badges in a row, but I failed after 3-4 months and what you did is 10x harder to do it!
Thanks for all that you are doing for other Hivians! 🙏❤️
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thank you @ph1102 I have surprised myself at getting this far and no where to go but up as the Echoes for sure have become an important start to my day. I love being able to share them.
Congratulations on reaching such a significant milestone! Your dedication is truly inspiring.
We look forward to seeing more of your Daily Echoes and other projects! Keep buzzing! 🐝
Thank you for your kind note @hivebuzz ... I shall keep buzzing