Last month made it three years I’ve been blogging.
Three years.
I had a very little idea of what I was getting into when I started. What type of blog would I be? What would I write about? What if I couldn’t write about anything? What if no one read it? What if they read it but didn’t like it? What if they read it, liked it, and wanted me to write something else good?
But I did one thing; I started.
Then I kept doing it. Some things got easier. Some things didn’t. But I kept doing it. I kept changing things until I thought they were best. It was work, but it was fun work.
It’s something that I encourage everyone to try. Here’s some of my favorite reasons why it’s worth a shot.
- It’s free – If one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to save more and spend less, then you’ll find no other activity that can occupy so much time and cost absolutely nothing. Start with a free space here at WordPress. It’s easy and there are tons of tools to help along the way. What time you don’t spend writing, you’ll spend reading other blogs and
stealing getting ideas.
- It will change the way you look at things – This will happen so much quicker than you’d expect. Before long you’ll start to watch life and not just live it. The only way I can describe it is the difference between the driver’s seat and the passenger’s seat. When you’re the driver you have to focus on the road, the task at hand. When you’re the passenger you can enjoy the scenery. Blogging makes you do both. You go throughout your day as usual, but soon you’ll notice you’re doing something else. You’re watching. You’re noticing. Your driving like normal, but checking out the scenery too.
- It will change the way you think – I’d describe myself as a pretty analytic person by nature. I love lists. I make lists for everything. One thing I noticed about making lists for my blog, I’ve gotten better at it. I’ve gotten better at reflecting and organizing things mentally. I’ve gotten better at putting them in order so the clutter can be on my desk, but my mind feels like its running on the Dewey Decimal System.
- It will make you manage your time better – If this is the year you decide to get organized, then starting a blog is definitely what you need. I tell myself constantly that I have to make time to have time. I have to make time for this. Usually that means I’m getting less sleep but that’s okay with me.
- It will make you flex – You won’t be flexing your glutes in a wall of mirrors at the gym, but you will be flexing. Blogging causes you to work your mind out in a way it rarely gets to do any more. When you’re a kid you get to do all kinds of creative things but as an adult our opportunities for creativity are usually limited to sticking to your budgets and excuses for being late. Blogging makes you flex your creative muscles constantly – potential topics, posting structures, titles, pictures, graphics, and the list goes on. Soon you’ll realize you had an entire group of mental-muscles that have been begging to hit the weights.
If you’ve wrestled with yourself about starting a blog then here’s a good tip I’ve told several people:
Try to come up with ten blog posts.
They can be about anything. Just try to come up with ten separate ideas that will get you writing. Write down the ideas and see how it feels. Expand on each idea to see how you’d like to write about it. It might come slow at first, but it will give you a good idea if this is something you’ll forward to or just end up hating.
If you have those then do it. Get started.
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Tagged as Art, Blogging, Books, Free, How-to, Like, New Year's Resolution, Reading, Tutorial, Write, Writing
Thinking Out Loud | gtylermills 