I know a lot of bloggers who write similar posts about how they got started or how it feels to be a writer. But usually, it’s along the lines of “Why I Blog” or “How Blogging has Changed Me” but how it’s made me a better person. There had never been anything I cared about more before blogging. I wasted my time and felt pointless. I hope that in the time I’ve created these spaces I have changed or brought joy to someone’s life.
Creative Outlet
I haven’t held onto any kind of hobby for this long. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel real, that I get to just sit on the computer and put my thoughts and feelings down for others to read and enjoy. I cannot believe it’s truly been the best 7 years of my life! Aside from being married all that time as well, I’ve never been so proud of sticking with something before. I love to write, I always have.
Improved My Writing
My writing has definitely improved over these past seven years. I’m still always learning and growing as far as typing and grammar go but, it’s been a journey. I have started to work on making my titles better and including everything in each post that I need to so it can be successful. Aesthetically though I have worked hard in creating a post theme and layout that works. I always include a signature and “call to action” when I have one available.
Built Lifelong Friendships
I’ve started and grown some of the best friendships that will last a lifetime. I’ve bonded and shared with these new women in my life who are similar to me and busy following their dreams. Collaborating with like-minded people makes you more creative and think harder than you do on a daily basis. I trust them with giving me vision, opinions and brutal honesty when I need it. I hope that someday we can all meet face to face but the screen to screen is close enough for right now. They don’t feel like my real friends- they are my real friends. Actually, I often speak with online blogging friends more than people in my own hometown. But why that is, I don’t know. I love them both personally and professionally.
Sense of Confidence and Self-Development
Blogging has done one major thing in my life and that’s helped me cut out negative people who always took me for granted/manipulated me. I learned to trust others around me and everything my gut tells me. When I have the slightest intuition it’s usually right. I’m much more confident in myself than I was when I began. In addition, blogging makes me want to be a better person in my self development-become a more well-rounded person. And so far, it’s working!
Memory Book
I love coming up with posts and personal stories to share with friends and family. Because I’ve been blogging here for so long and gone through so many changes and titles, it is literally a living memory book. My favorite thing is to go back, update and relive all the good, bad, and ugly times. It’s a comfort that I have every detail recorded somewhere. Seeing a timeline of how I’ve changed and grown into my own person is also pretty neat to have for a keepsake. It’s really neat knowing that I have a record of so many things I’ve done big or small.
Time-Management
This has been a difficult one because I’m not the best at scheduling things in my everyday life. I’m continually working on making a daily schedule and an editorial calendar so I can stay on track for my blog deadlines. Having everything happen on time is something I can really take pride in. I use many tools like Hootsuite and Trello to stay on top of my time management needs to keep to a schedule or deadline. I also really love the app called Forest which is a fun concentration game where you cannot exit once the time starts making you be productive on your single task in a sense. Unable to use your phone for 30 mins more or less- definitely cuts down on my darting tendencies. If you have troubles in this area I highly recommend looking on Pinterest for ideas or following my Productivity board here. Or my Motivation board here.
