So I’ve been asking myself this. You’ve got a zillion other things on your to-do list, surely it would be a much better use of your time to be doing one of those instead of randomly writing stuff on the internet. Why start a blog? What’s up with your priorities?
Well, I have my reasons.
1. Structures my thoughts: One of the benefits of being an introvert is there is a lot of thinking and musing and pondering going on… like a constant stream of it, and sometimes getting it down on paper (ahem, I mean pixels) helps clarify and refine my thoughts. So yes, I’ve got a zillion other things I could be doing, but I do think blogging could be a useful tool to help me get more effective at doing those things.
2. It’s me being… Me. This isn’t a blog for work. It’s not a blog about a social cause. It’s a blog for me and about me and to do with, you guessed it, me. Which maybe sounds incredibly self-centered, but sometimes I feel like I’m losing my identity being caught up in work or the latest thing that I feel I have to care about… So recording what matters to me, well, it feels less about being self-centered and more about being self-recognising.
I hope that by blogging about what I care about, even if it’s something small and insignificant and a total who cares moment, I’ll grasp more of a sense of who I am as a person.
Sometime ago I left a job I adored and then had a Who even am I??? moment as I got to grips with the fact that I was not my job, and not my work, and my identity wasn’t (any longer) being an employee of that organisation. Honestly it felt a bit disorientating to no longer be what I thought of myself as for so long.
I’m sure it’s not healthy to have your identity wrapped up in work/job, so I’d like to use this blog to recognise and celebrate stuff I’m excited about outside of work. Not that I won’t ever mention work, just that I want to recognise that that’s not ALL of me.
3. It’s fun. And we all need a good hobby to help unwind.
I genuinely enjoy writing and recording things. I also genuinely enjoy excitedly sharing about stuff I like or am interested in. However, I don’t really like going on about it out loud…. so… an online blog seems like the perfect way to go on and on and on and on and on (and OK you get it) on about stuff that could seriously bore someone if they were to get an earful of it from me out loud.
So there we go. Three reasons I can think of (off the top of my head) for Why start a blog.
Blogging. I just think it’s very me.