Everyone Should Blog - NeoStrategy

This is very interesting anniversary I am celebrating ;).

Last year exactly same time – May 1st 2017– on a good lazy day, I casually said I will do daily blogging. I never wrote much prior to this. Thanks to Seth Godin. He says one must do daily blogging by sharing their thoughts, ideas, etc. Based on his inspiration I just started as an experiment.

Fast forward one year. Here I am. This is what I had written exactly one year back .=> My 1st Blog last year- May 1st 2017

I said blogging will bring following benefits. Lets see if my assumption are still valid or not.

Play with Fears :  I had little bit of resistance in starting certain kind of blogs or series like ADHD and certain non conventional ideas. Honestly I did not feel much fear as I was not expecting much and continued to write for the pleasure of sharing my thoughts.

1. Creates Discipline: I don’t consider myself as very disciplined contrary to what appears outside. But with Blogging I am reasonably consistent and which helped in increasing my discipline to some extent.
2. Become Better Writer:  Not sure if I became a better writer. But definitely my speed has increased. Initially it used to take 45 to 50 mins. Now it is less than 30 mins. This includes coming up with idea for the day, writing, one glance of proof reading, selecting picture and posting.
3. Clarity in Thinking: For sure, blogging has enhanced my thinking in various areas – Career, Business, Psychology, Philosophy, Innovation, ADHD, etc. I think blogging is the fastest way to enhance own thinking
4. Become Expert: Not sure about this. May be yes in some areas.  If I would have done blogging only in one area may be expertise will increase. But I am ok with the variety for first year. From now on may be I will restrict to few areas. Lets see.
5. Ideas will Flow: This is 100%. I myself amaze how I get these ideas. Not all may be good but more ideas will flow.
6. Kills Perfectionism: I wanted to have perfect blog site for 3 years and wrote 3 blogs in 3 years and worked on 3 different blog developers. Zero output. This blogging experiment killed perfectionism in me.

Even though I said daily blogging. I could not do daily blogging but could almost do alternate day blogging on an average. I did 151 blogs out of 365 days.

Enough of bragging…Actually it is not. It just to show how much is possible with the combination of passion & consistency. Hope you find some thing you are passionate about and start your blogging journey. I am more than happy to help you if need any help. Good Luck !!

This is my 100^th  Blog.  Have started my blogging journey on May 1st 2017 as an experimentation. Before this I have never written in my life. I get all kinds of different ideas and thoughts. I was not sure whether these are just some random thoughts or have any some stuff in it. To test them I have started writing.  The journey so far is good.

Started as a daily blog. But I did skip few days here and there due to some unavoidable situations. Earlier I was taking around 45 – 50 mins. Now I just take around 25 -30 mins max. My ideation muscle and writing pace has increased from the practice.

Below are some of key observations:

• Blogging is a real “self help” tool. Not sure how many got benefited from my blogs but I definitely got good  benefits. I learn from what I write
• Any thing we consistently do gives 10X return vs doing things inconsistently. This is why I still show inclination towards daily blogging Vs random blogging
• In any pursuit, we get many ups and downs. But if we have passion the ups will look very up and downs wont look that much down

Thanks to people who have been reading my blogs and providing feedback/encouragement.

On some days, I have written with half sleep and not paid attention to editing. So apologies for any mistakes. Plan to do one time clean up.

Final note – Even though I have used some of words like “we should..” or “I suggest..”, etc. I really don’t mean to preach any thing to any one. I myself in the path of learning – both from pains and pleasures.

Time flies. Have completed 52 blogs so far. Impulsively decided to do daily blog on May 1st 2017.

I am enjoying my blogging time. I am really not writing these to motivate, help people or bring some change. None of these. I am just doing the blogging to know what I really have inside me and to test few assumptions and emotions. On the way if this helps someone I would be happy.

Initially, I was getting the questions like – “”How are you managing to write daily blogs” and  ” Where do you get time” . Answer is very simple – Passion. I don’t watch much TV or News reading nor debate on how Modi can do better. So I get some time.  Also, I also get very good support & peace from my family. Thanks to my family.

I spend around 45 mins to complete blog and posting. I just think about the idea for 5-10 mins and 30 mins to write and 5 mins to post. I write what pops up in my mind. This clarification might help some people.

Thanks to all of you who are reading and providing your encouragement. Special thanks to the people who have taken time to give me feedback.

One main feedback and observation regarding daily blog – Few people told me and I also felt that some people are not able to read the blog on daily basis. And the recommendation was to do the blog on weekends or alternate days. But this process will break the writing & thinking rhythm. Until 100 blogs I will continue with daily blog. I will decide later if things change. Also think if there is any better to meet both requirements (mine and yours).

One of my role model is Seth Godin. Seth is world’s top author, marketer, entrepreneur and daily blogger.  He is a big advocate of daily blogging. I have taken inspiration from Seth and decided to blog every day. This is going to be a real experiment for me.

Here are the key reasons why I think blogging every day will change life for better.

1. Play with Fears: Like any new venture in life, blogging/writing also creates fear in your brain and builds huge resistance initially. What is the worst thing that can happen when you blog? May be you run out of ideas, quality of content is not good, self-doubt about your writing skill, criticism, may be not able to spend time consistently, etc. You are not going to be killed for these reasons. But our dear Amygdala in the brain will stop you moving forward. I think blogging is the lowest risk venture to face the fears and move forward in life.
2. Creates Discipline: If you have to blog every day obviously you need to have systems and discipline in place. Once you build discipline in one area and you automatically will be able to replicate the model into other areas of life.
3. Become Better Writer: If you have itch for writing and have a dream of becoming an author then daily practice of writing will make you much better writer. If you have doubts about your writing skills, then all the more reason you need to blog every day.
4. Clarity in Thinking: When you start writing, your clarity on that particular topic will significantly improve. And eventually your thinking capability will increase.
5. Become Expert: As you keep sharing your knowledge and thinking with rest of the world you will gain more and more knowledge and become an expert in the chose area.
6. Ideas will Flow: Once you have set in your mind that you have to produce a blog every day, your brain will start searching for new ideas and you will end up publishing next blog and next blog.
7. Kills Perfectionism: I have been waiting for the perfect website design, perfect blog topics, etc. Perfectionism is poisonous especially when you are venturing into any unknown area. Daily blogging will not have luxury for perfect blog posts. You just have to keep writing with in the shorter time available with your day job.

Of course, there are many other commercial benefits of blogging but I am more interested in simply sharing my ideas/thoughts with others. Even if no one reads you blog you still get all the above benefits!