Why Do I Blog?

From the moment I started this blog, and that was only three and a half months ago, people asked me why. Why was I starting a blog? Why do I want to blog?  Why do I continue blogging? I ask myself these questions almost every day. There are thousands of blogs out there, and despite the positive feedback I get from all of you, my readers, I still wonder about why I do this. I doubt my abilities to produce good content, grow this blog and turn it into something that might be profitable all the time. But you see, as much as these questions can come from a place of self-doubt, they are usually the most important to answer. If you can’t tell someone why you are doing something, then why are you even doing it? Another ‘why question’ – see? They are everywhere! The ‘why’ question is so important because it can tell you so much about a person. It gives you all of their justifications for their actions and allows you to see if, in your mind at least, they are doing it for the right reasons. Ideally, the ‘why’ should always be answered from a place of passion, not out of some perceived necessity. Because who wants to trust someone who is doing something “just because I have to”? You all read my blog (and thank you very much for doing so – I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart) for various reasons, and today I’d like to share with you my own reasons. Because you all should know why I write these posts every week, and why I keep doing it even when one post gets next to no views. So, for all of those who are curious, this is why I blog:

The writing

I have always adored writing. It has been one of my favourite pass-times since I was a little girl and the love for it has only grown since then. During high school though, you often run out of time to do things you love because you are so busy ticking boxes and getting everything done. This happened for me, and so when 2019 rolled around, I decided enough was enough. I needed to get back into my writing. Blogging fulfils my desire to write because I get to produce almost 3000 words a week, words that I enjoy writing. Not only that but writing this blog also improves my writing because practice makes perfect. The more I do, the better I get (at least that is what I hope – you guys can let me know). One of my dreams is to publish a novel (fingers crossed, touch wood and all of those things) and so writing this blog also helps me to practice writing large amounts in designated periods but also pushes me to write better each time. I blog because I love writing, and I want to get better at it.

Sharing my thoughts and advice

Another reason why I blog is that I’ve always loved sharing my thoughts and advice. I love helping people and giving advice where I can, because heck if we can’t share what we learn with other people, to help them and make their lives a little easier, then why should we receive that help? Even though I am only an 18 year old with minimal life experience, there is always something that we can learn from each other. A sort of informal guidebook, if you will. I blog because I hope that, through the various obstacles, experiences and struggles I have had in my life, I can help others. I can help them realise that they are not the only ones who have gone through this, but also by giving them advice and showing them how I got through it. Someone might find the lessons that I learnt useful, but if not it still serves as a guidebook for my future self.

Exposure

The best thing that any writer can do for their writing is to give it exposure. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our work and worlds that we don’t see how we can improve, and we don’t grow and make new connections. Blogging gives myself and my writing exposure – I can get feedback on my work and hopefully make it better, and make new friends with other people in the blogging community or who simply enjoy reading my blog. For me, the logic behind exposure and blogging (or writing) is like playing the lottery. You can’t hope to win if you don’t play. Therefore I can’t get feedback, meet new people, or get opportunities through my writing, if I don’t expose myself and put my writing out there. Sometimes self-doubt can get in the way of exposure (as it does for me a lot), but sometimes we just need to bite the bullet and take a risk. JK Rowling got rejected many times before getting published, and now the world is blessed to have the world of Harry Potter, which we would never have had if JK Rowling hadn’t exposed herself despite rejection and self-doubt. Even if exposure can be scary, don’t let that exposure stop you from putting yourself or your work out there. As much as it terrifies me, I’d rather face my fear of exposure than lose out on something amazing. You never know what could happen.

The fun challenge

Blogging also happens to be a fun challenge for me and here is why: I know that there are lots of other blogs that give advice or talk about the topics I talk about. So the fun challenge comes in thinking up content that isn’t completely obscure but is also interesting enough for you all to read. Blogging means that I have to think outside of the box looking for topics or looking for ways to approach certain things, and for me, that is an invaluable life skill. Challenges help us grow and so while it is sometimes extremely frustrating when I can’t think about a way to make a post interesting, I know that it is making me a better thinker. Writing this blog is a fun challenge in that every post is different. There is a different focus, varying depth and different ways I need to incorporate the media, and trying to do all of this in each post has allowed me to become a better thinker, who can adapt to the challenges I face.

Build discipline

As with anything that you want to get better at, the key to it all is discipline. Another big reason that I blog is that it is teaching me to be disciplined. Anyone who thinks that blogging isn’t a challenge hasn’t truly done it, because blogging is all about discipline. It takes discipline to sit down and write consistently. It takes discipline to make sure that, if you say you are going to post every day, you post every day. Sometimes I get lazy, or I don’t think that a particular post is worthy of being published, but through practising self-discipline and forcing myself to do it, I know that I can push through those feelings. By telling myself, by hook or by crook I have to publish a blog post every Wednesday and Saturday, I have built up my self-discipline and let me tell you, it is one of the best feelings in the world when you conquer yourself and fulfil a goal that you set out to achieve.

Reading and learning

Another reason why I blog is that it has allowed me to do more reading and learning in fields that I didn’t expect. Before writing a blog, I read through different articles and research, information that could help strengthen my blog and by doing all of this extra reading (and often getting sidetracked because it is so appealing) I have learnt so many new and exciting things about different topics. I have learnt fun facts about subjects that interest me and interesting information about things that I never knew before. I would never have gained all this new information, or have been able to do so much more reading if I hadn’t started this blog. So, I keep blogging because I love it, but also because I get to continue reading and learning every time I have something new to blog about.

Reflect

This is probably one of the most important reasons why I blog. Blogging allows me to reflect. Whenever I write a post, I reflect on the experience that inspired the post and how I learnt and grew from it. Now and then, I go back and read the old blog posts, and reflect on how I have grown as a writer, but also what I have learnt and experienced. This blog is sometimes like a journal for me; it allows me to express my thoughts and ideas about a topic and every time I reread something, I recall how much that experience changed me or how it impacted on me. I blog because I think that reflection is a crucial part of growing up and learning how to keep improving yourself. I’ve been able to reflect on so many aspects of my life because of this blog, which is why I keep blogging and why I enjoy it so much.

I know that this post wasn’t as informative as they usually are, but I hope that doesn’t take away from you enjoying it. As much as I wasn’t giving advice or tips about anything, I think that knowing why we do things is the most important question you can ask yourself. Not only do you get to know the real justification behind your actions, but you can also see if you are doing it because you love it and need to keep doing it, or just “because you have to”. I hope that this post has given you some insight into why I blog, and I hope that it inspires you all to think about why you do the things you do and why you do things you are passionate about. Sometimes just reflecting on why you do something you are passionate about can be an incredible experience and make you remember why you are passionate about it in the first place. I hope that you enjoyed this blog post – I really enjoyed writing it. For my question, I have two today:

• What are you passionate about?
• Why do you do something you love? What is the main reason behind it?

Please give your responses in the comments section – I’d love to hear. Thank you all again so much for reading. Please like this post if you haven’t already, and subscribe so you don’t miss out on future blog posts. See you on Saturday!

Lots of Love

Blondey on a Mission xxx