I talk to a lot of hobbyists who sometimes lose their way in this game we call "reef keeping."
This is ground we've covered before in one form or another, but it bears repeating periodically, because- well- because there is a lot of negativity out there. A lot of arrogance and, well- ignorance, too.
What precipitated today's little rant is a conversation I had with a reefer who attempted to list some corals on one of those Facebook "auction" groups and was slammed into sumbission by some trend-mongering %^&*&*&s (insert your favorite expletive) who basically told her that the corals she listed were not the "real_______" , when in fact, they were actually good-sized frags of this (insert stupid coral name here) at a fair price, from a large colony that she maintained for years. These "reefers" simply would not accept the fact that she was selling realistic-sized frags of a certain coveted coral at a fair price that most of these knuckleheads sell as photoshopped, freshly-glued microchips for heart-stopping prices. They told her that her "imposter coral" was going to "ruin the market" (you kidding me?) and that she should stop listing on this particular group because she'd "tick off" (again, insert favorite colloquialism here) a lot of other "vendors" (don't start me on that definition).
That put her in a bad place. She fell into a bad place because she had the "audacity" to disrupt the viral absurdity out there by doing something cool, and was threatened, smashed, and flogged for it.
Negativity. Perpetuated by people who are scared.
It's one of many reasons why reefers stop enjoying the hobby.
Reefers begin to stop enjoying the hobby because they fall into this negative vibe that's out there.
They stop enjoying the hobby, feel bad about their failures, or even what they feel is the insignificance of their successes..and then things get...ruined.
Things get ruined for a lot of reasons.
Things get ruined when we allow others to dictate how we feel. When we let them get inside our head. When their values, style, opinion overshadows our own. Things get ruined when we lose our focus.
Things get ruined when we are not ourselves. When we don’t follow our dreams, our intuition…that little voice inside that says, “Don’t get that coral!”
They get ruined when we get caught up in a negative discussion on a forum...where we get nasty response from a so-called "expert" who thinks that our idea is wrong simply "because."
Things get ruined when we compare our reefs, our corals, our hobby accomplishments to others, and feel somehow that we're "not one of the cool kids" because we don't have that "LE coral" or trendy piece of gear...or whatever.
Things get ruined when we lose our way, deviate significantly from our plan, especially when it was working, starting to work, or showed great promise of working. Things get ruined when we give up too soon.
Things get ruined when we do too many things; when we don’t keep it simple. When we build in needless layers of complexity and procedure, which "burn us out" on what made us love reefing in the first place. And of course, things get ruined when we don’t follow our own procedures…or worse, when we follow the procedures laid out by others which don’t really work for our system.
Things get ruined when we blame ourselves for everything that goes wrong in our systems. Sometimes, things just go south because we’re dealing with living creatures and a whole lot of variables.
On the other hand, things get ruined when we are arrogant, selfish, and carry ourselves with an air of hubris, demeaning to others and their efforts and accomplishments simply because we can’t feel good about ourselves.
Don’t be that hobbyist.
Things get ruined because we’re always looking for the next big thing. The shortcut. The sage advice. Things get ruined because we think everyone else has it all figured out and that we need to do it the same way, just because.
Things get ruined because we're afraid to speak our mind when we know we are right, and that others could benefit from hearing our view, or seeing what we can bring to the table.
Most important, things get ruined because we lose our passion- our motivation, our love for the whole thing…The very force that drove us into this hobby to begin with. Without passion, all you have is an expensive, soulless, imitative pile of equipment and life, aggregated together with audacity, for the purpose of pleasing…whom?
Things to ponder when you hit a rough spot in the hobby…or in life, I suppose.
Don’t let “them” tell you what’s cool. Don’t let others dictate how you feel about your hobby. Don’t overcomplicate stuff. Don’t beat yourself up when stuff goes wrong.
Don’t lose your passion. Ever.
And…
Stay Wet
Scott Fellman
This is ground we've covered before in one form or another, but it bears repeating periodically, because- well- because there is a lot of negativity out there. A lot of arrogance and, well- ignorance, too.
What precipitated today's little rant is a conversation I had with a reefer who attempted to list some corals on one of those Facebook "auction" groups and was slammed into sumbission by some trend-mongering %^&*&*&s (insert your favorite expletive) who basically told her that the corals she listed were not the "real_______" , when in fact, they were actually good-sized frags of this (insert stupid coral name here) at a fair price, from a large colony that she maintained for years. These "reefers" simply would not accept the fact that she was selling realistic-sized frags of a certain coveted coral at a fair price that most of these knuckleheads sell as photoshopped, freshly-glued microchips for heart-stopping prices. They told her that her "imposter coral" was going to "ruin the market" (you kidding me?) and that she should stop listing on this particular group because she'd "tick off" (again, insert favorite colloquialism here) a lot of other "vendors" (don't start me on that definition).
That put her in a bad place. She fell into a bad place because she had the "audacity" to disrupt the viral absurdity out there by doing something cool, and was threatened, smashed, and flogged for it.
Negativity. Perpetuated by people who are scared.
It's one of many reasons why reefers stop enjoying the hobby.
Reefers begin to stop enjoying the hobby because they fall into this negative vibe that's out there.
They stop enjoying the hobby, feel bad about their failures, or even what they feel is the insignificance of their successes..and then things get...ruined.
Things get ruined for a lot of reasons.
Things get ruined when we allow others to dictate how we feel. When we let them get inside our head. When their values, style, opinion overshadows our own. Things get ruined when we lose our focus.
Things get ruined when we are not ourselves. When we don’t follow our dreams, our intuition…that little voice inside that says, “Don’t get that coral!”
They get ruined when we get caught up in a negative discussion on a forum...where we get nasty response from a so-called "expert" who thinks that our idea is wrong simply "because."
Things get ruined when we compare our reefs, our corals, our hobby accomplishments to others, and feel somehow that we're "not one of the cool kids" because we don't have that "LE coral" or trendy piece of gear...or whatever.
Things get ruined when we lose our way, deviate significantly from our plan, especially when it was working, starting to work, or showed great promise of working. Things get ruined when we give up too soon.
Things get ruined when we do too many things; when we don’t keep it simple. When we build in needless layers of complexity and procedure, which "burn us out" on what made us love reefing in the first place. And of course, things get ruined when we don’t follow our own procedures…or worse, when we follow the procedures laid out by others which don’t really work for our system.
Things get ruined when we blame ourselves for everything that goes wrong in our systems. Sometimes, things just go south because we’re dealing with living creatures and a whole lot of variables.
On the other hand, things get ruined when we are arrogant, selfish, and carry ourselves with an air of hubris, demeaning to others and their efforts and accomplishments simply because we can’t feel good about ourselves.
Don’t be that hobbyist.
Things get ruined because we’re always looking for the next big thing. The shortcut. The sage advice. Things get ruined because we think everyone else has it all figured out and that we need to do it the same way, just because.
Things get ruined because we're afraid to speak our mind when we know we are right, and that others could benefit from hearing our view, or seeing what we can bring to the table.
Most important, things get ruined because we lose our passion- our motivation, our love for the whole thing…The very force that drove us into this hobby to begin with. Without passion, all you have is an expensive, soulless, imitative pile of equipment and life, aggregated together with audacity, for the purpose of pleasing…whom?
Things to ponder when you hit a rough spot in the hobby…or in life, I suppose.
Don’t let “them” tell you what’s cool. Don’t let others dictate how you feel about your hobby. Don’t overcomplicate stuff. Don’t beat yourself up when stuff goes wrong.
Don’t lose your passion. Ever.
And…
Stay Wet
Scott Fellman
