Starting a blog has been one of the best things I have ever decided to do. I have been asked a lot about why I decided to start one so here are my reasons:
Getting Over Fear
This was such a big thing for me and it is for so many others. Going into the unknown can be very scary as you don't know what to expect and there is a fear of failure.
I didn't know the first thing about starting a website and feared that I would do it and no one would bother read it. But then I asked myself so what?
So what if no one read it? Would I lose anything? No. not if I am doing it for the right reasons.
I wanted to start this blog so I can prove to myself that I can do it and that I can learn something new.
I was researching into it so much and watching so many YouTube videos on how to create a blog. I thought to myself, I can keep watching these videos dreaming about how great it would be or I could just do it and find out how great it is.
Being A Creator Not Just A Consumer
I was watching a video on YouTube from Ken at the Humble Penny and he asked: "Do you want to be a creator or a consumer?". For some reason that just resonated with me and made me reflect on how I live my life.
It is so easy to just consume day by day without giving anything back because everything is so easy to do just that. However when I thought about how I can give back and how good it would feel to create something from nothing, that is what started me on the journey to creating my own blog.
Don't get me a wrong I am still a consumer and always will be but by writing my blog I feel like I am doing just that little bit to give back too.
Self Improve
Hopefully you have realised by now that I am always looking to improve and get better. That is what this blog is centered around.
If you told me a year ago that I would have my own blog I would not of belived you. However the amazing thing about the world we live in is that if you want to learn how to do something you ca easily find out how.
So all it took was watching a few YouTube videos, reading up and doing a few Google searches and I then had the know how of what to do.
Leave A Legacy
This was a big one for me. Austin Kleon talks about in his book Show Your Work how you should read obituaries. Sounds a bit depressing on the face of it but if you think about it he has a point.
When you read obituaries they arent depressing, they are heart warming and they coming from people that went through the effort of getting it printed to show their appreciation to the person it is for.
The people that they are dedicating it to have made such a mark on those people that they went out of their way to get a obituary printed.
So it got me thinking, when I leave this world what legacy do I want to leave? What would I want people to say about me in my obituary?
My blog is one small part of that. It represents me and it is something that will be around long after I am gone. No one can take that away from me.
Connect With Others
Going online gives you the ability to connect with absolutely anyone in the world. If I wanted I could write a newsletter every week and I could go around and post it through everyones letter boxes in the town I live.
This would be very tiring and I would probably annoy people along the way. However the power of the internet allows me to publish the same material on a global scale.
Not only that but the only people that will likely see it will be people interested in the topic I am talking about.
Through my blog I have the ability to connect with people in the US, Australia or anywhere else in the world! When you think about it, it is truly mind blowing!
Share My Work
As mentioned I am a strong beiever in self improvement and so I do a lot of reading and researching on the topic. I am no expert but neither are most people.
So if I find out somethign interesting or something I feel like it is worth other knowing, why keep it to myself?
That is the great thing about starting a blog. I dont need to do anything extra apart from typing it up so I can sharw with others.
Using My Time Productively
My family and I moved in to a new house and for about a year we were busy with decorating and DIY to make it in to a home.
So most evenings and weekends I would be painting or putting some piece of furniture together. Majority of my free time was spent doing this.
The day came when we were done and I could put my paintbrushes away and relax. So now all of my evenings and weekends were spent binge watching Netflix. This was great but after spending all of my time previosuly doing somethign I felt was rewarding, watching Netflix did not give me that same feeling.
So that is when I started thinking about what else I could do with my time that would be useful and that I would enjoy doing too. Hence the blog!
By the way, I still watch Netflix and do get a lot of joy out of it but it feels so much better after I have done a bit of writing for my blog first!
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Thanks for reading,
Gav
*For full transparency, the post above has affiliate links. If you click on affiliate links and make a purchase it is of no extra cost to you but I will receive a small commission from it.
