Hello World! Welcome to my blog. I've wanted to create one for quite awhile and I've finally done it. I have no idea how long I'll keep it going or how much I'll write in here. But here are some of my reasons for creating the blog. This first post will be a good reminder to myself of why I want to write in this blog and what kind of things to write about.
Reasons I Created My Own Blog
1. To Write About My Goals
This is my main reason for creating this blog. I'm very into being organized, setting goals, and creating habits. I've read books like "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and "Getting Things Done" that have helped me very much in my life. I've read a lot of articles on websites like Lifehack, Lifehacker, Zen Habits, and many others. I always keep lists and notes on my mobile computer, which used to be a Palm Z22 and is now an iPod Touch. I've reached some important goals in the last few years. Lately I've had a hard time getting motivated enough to work on an important goal. I keep reading about how one of the best habits you can get into besides creating the habit to spend time working towards the goal every day is to tell people about your goal or journal publicly about it. So I finally decided to make this blog so I can write publicly about my goals and the progress I'm making or not making. Hopefully writing about my goal will keep me thinking about it and motivated to achieve it.
2. Creating A Blog Was A Goal
I've kept a list of goals and projects in some form or another for years now. I change the goals on the list a lot, and take many goals off when I feel they aren't that important. But creating a blog has stayed on that list so I'm completing a goal just by creating this blog.
3. Make The Habit Of Journaling
Journaling every day is something that I want to get in the habit of doing. I've done it before, but I sometimes get lost in the details like whether I should do it in a paper notebook, or which software program I should use. I think that making a single public blog to write in will make this easier for me. I will also start writing in a personal journal too sometime hopefully. And between my private journal and my public blog, hopefully I can keep it simple and get in the habit of journaling about my goals and my life.
4. To Practice Writing
Besides journaling, I think it will also be very good for me to practice writing and to write more often. It's another habit that I've always wanted to get into doing more. And another habit that I read about as being something which can improve your life in many different ways.
5. To Write About My Interests, Thoughts, And Events
A few of the topics that I'm interested in and may write about are technology, computer programming, goal setting and productivity, health and fitness, baseball, reading, and music. And I could also write about general thoughts or ideas I have or about events I have gone to.
6. Telling People About My Life And Keeping In Touch
A blog is the perfect place to write letters or give updates to people about your life or to post a sort of online newsletter. I don't use Facebook much to keep people updated and I've also come to the conclusion recently that I don't particularly like Twitter, instant messaging, or online chatting. I prefer letters, email, or actually talking to someone in person or on the phone.
7. To Put Myself Out There
This isn't so much a goal of this blog as it is a consequence. I've stayed away from having an online identity quite a bit. I only got a Facebook account this year and I haven't posted to online forums much at all. I've been worried about putting things out on the internet that will always be there and I was aware of that early on when the internet began. Mostly I know that employers will find your blog or anything on the web about you. But I'm trying to relax a bit more about this and not stress over people finding out all about me. And as far as my blog, I can control anything put on my blog so if I want to remove something or take down my blog I can.
Taking The First Step
Most of my blog posts won't be nearly this long, structured, or well written. I'm not writing this blog to pursue a writing career or to market myself for a business or for my career. I'm not trying to create a blog about a specific topic and make money from ads or to bring something to the attention to a large audience of readers. I'm not even trying to create a blog that family and friends will necessarily read. I want this to be a place where I can quickly write about little things that I've done to work towards my goals. Or about little things that I've done in my life. And just having it be public and know that people could be reading it will give me some motivation to work towards my goals. But if it works out I might create some longer posts like this too if I get into the habit of writing and blogging.
Of course I'm all excited now and I don't know how often I'll post to this blog or for how long I'll keep it up. It's quite possible this could be my only post. But I certainly have a lot of reasons to write a blog. And taking the first step is often the hardest thing to do.
August 8th, 2009