Haven’t we all heard the many very valid reasons why you need to start a blog and why it makes a lot of sense. Things like, it can make you money, build your authority, allow you to become an influencer in your niche and build a legacy for future generations, being just a few.
What I would like to share with you today is some of the more unusual reasons. Reasons focused around you as a person and why it’s to your benefit. These reasons are not about your market, making money or what others want. This is about how it will help you to grow as a person. It’s about using it as a tool to become better and reach your goals.
The bottom line is, when you become better and grow, then you can add more value to your market. This then directly translates into becoming more successful and the money that will flow as a result.
Use blogging as part of your self-development
Many people today fear rejection by others. That rejection can come in many forms, but is most keenly felt when others reject what you are trying to achieve.
There appears to be an invisible stigma attached to self development and the people involved with the practice. Self development happens when you take responsibility for your growth and your vision of yourself.
To start a blog is not natural for most people. There is a huge learning curve that moves people outside of their comfort zones and this is exactly why it’s a great way to grow and develop yourself.
A blog is a dynamic entity. It’s not something static. As time moves on and you develop your skills, you blog will grow and get better as well.
Whether you blog for yourself or to grow an online business or share a passion – having a blog forces you to expand your thinking and develop yourself to be able to face every challenge that comes your way.
Don’t blog for others – Blog for yourself
When you start blogging one of the most prevalent things you will hear is “It’s all about your target market or niche”.
I agree that in time you need to create content that will resonate with your audience. However, when starting out, most people do not even really know who their market is.
This is why you need to blog for yourself and not prescribe to what other’s believe is right. Develop your own voice and your target market will be attracted to you.
Your authenticity and unique perspective will put a “new” slant on content that has already been written about before. Don’t become the parrot that sounds just like everybody else.
There is no right or wrong – there is only you and your message.
Use a blog as the bullet journal for your book
Writing a book is like climbing Mount Everest for many aspiring authors. They get overwhelmed with what they perceive to be a huge amount of work to get it done.
Using a blog as a bullet journal for writing your book makes it become a far more manageable task. Each blogpost is a micro chunk of the book. It can be expanded upon or used to trigger the actual content that the writer wants to write about.
You can sequence the “blogposts” in such a way that it becomes the flow of either the entire book or just chapter by chapter. Many authors have actually used the “Blog a Book” process very successfully.
Blog to get out of your comfort zone and learn new skills
Use starting a blog as a tool to get out of your comfort zone.
It will force you to learn new skills, most of which you may never have needed before. Skills that are completely foreign in nature to where you find yourself right now.
It is in actual fact a very “safe” environment where you can learn new skills without others judging you. For example, having to write blogposts, setting up your blog, learning about images and technical stuff on your blog.
Unless your career or job has needed these skills, this will all be completely new to you. It will take you from the known to the unknown and in doing so, you will grow as a person.
It also becomes very exciting to know that you are taking action to develop yourself to reach your own goals.
So in Closing…
Your reasons for starting a blog can be diverse and completely unique to you. Don’t let others prescribe to you why you need to start a blog. Starting a blog was one of the things that was instrumental in my growth and success.
I trust this has given you some food for thought and hopefully helped you to make a decision that’s right for you.
Please comment and share any other unusual reasons why one needs to start a blog – I would love to hear from you.