10 years of blogging

10 years to the day that I published my first blog post on this blog site.  How I and this blog material have evolved is very significant.  232 blog posts (including this one), with overall viewership at 136,225 (at time of writing) across the site.  Though the stats don't motivate the content on my blog but good to know.  Thank you to the readers that keep returning and following my journey.

Me - "Originally following a 'call' in mid-2013 to trust the process of expressing not impressing."

A surprise hobby it turned out to be, which brought me so much clarity, opportunities and personal and professional impact.  This blog site evolved into an online space to reflect and discuss my work and life.  To the left is what I defined as it's purpose.  Further details on my rationale, writing approach and other open journaling benefits of my blog are in the blog post 'Why openness is good' and 'How to create an authentic blog'.  But here's an extract that captures a bit of this; "My blog is largely for personal expression so I can look back on my journey - journaling mainly about me, for me, with some intended for other audiences blog post.  As well as "...writing/typing to think, rather than think to write/type."  My writing style is usually anecdotal, descriptive and reflects my accessible, pragmatic and simplified nature.  It is part of my reflective process; digesting, consolidating and forming new directions and focus points.  The process of writing blog posts allows me to gather my thoughts, freshest thinking, think things through and make sense of the mess that is my note taking.  Which is a reflection of my mind - lots of thoughts and ideas that need to be joined up.  In most writings the process is more important than the outcome of the blog posts.  And I rarely revisit my blog posts, unless the need calls.  I keep things as real and authentic as possible - recording and journaling thoughts, feelings and outputs in the moment which adds further richness, rather than jut relying on-post reflection.  If I have experienced something and has made me think, I just write on what happened etc."

Some blog posts can be academic, which some are, especially in the Career development category.  But I am more confident when creating and expressing through my own unique reflective, pragmatic and accessible way.  I've talked about some very deep and extremely personal things in here, Personal development category, that contain lots of heartfelt learning and wisdom, and not always from positive experiences.  As in sync with my personality, I am open and honest person.  When I write here, I am often at peace and self-alignment - something that generative Artificial Intelligence cannot replace.  Often with a sense of joy when producing something of purpose work-related or leisure, usually digital, whether that be creative writing, a presentation, document or video.  In fact that is a way of engaging me through a purposeful output that can be used.  The cathartic reflective writing process allows me to be with myself.  With hope that it may help or inspire others as a result of my learning.  Some blog posts are external facing, but as I say this is predominantly for my own expression to look on my personal and emotional growth and impact and self-confidence.  Because oh boy do we need it in these modern workplaces!  Not many will praise you, so you have to acknowledge and praise yourself.

Me - "I really have found a way that works for me.  And I do feel a sense of personal success with how I use my blog.  Perhaps a reason is that I don't treat it as a service for others..."

Not many in my professional and perhaps personal networks know that I have this blog. Even though it is in the public domain, I don't particularly make the effort to share the content publicly.  For a number of reasons, namely fear of attention and the anxiety of people's responses.  Even though I have never and won't enabled comments on any of my blog posts.  I used to share my blog posts on my social media platforms but not as much as I used to, I think this d**kish experience and not wanting to 'join the noise' made me less motivated.  As I state on my blog "I write about me, for me, and my own authentic expression, articulation and development." I have pondered over this for a while, on whether I should or shouldn't but again as I state on my blog " However, people that have an interest in others' personal journeys and the learning technology specialism, may find the content helpful." Therefore, I probably should start to share some blog posts, in no particular order and frequency, as and when I feel comfortable to do so.  I feel my reflective material is worthy of being widely known, but that may come with unwanted criticism which is what I don't want.  If I do start to share my blog posts more widely, and whilst I welcome positive and debate-type responses, I will unapologetically call people out for actual trolling (provoking negativity), and will maintain my space and energy.  But generally I'm not looking for attention on them, but I do share links to blog posts as and when relevant in in-person and online conversations.

Using a medium like this also allowed me to make my personal and professional journey more visible.  The ability to view the journey I have taken from back then to now.  Outside looking in it could be viewed that I had what I have now at the start.  But that couldn't be further from the truth.  Hard work, facing the ugly, uncomfortable conflicts, pushing myself outside my comfort zone, asking, fighting, resisting, all led to this.  My working class attitude in me lives on.

I've definitely learnt a lot more about who I am, and developing my professionalism, through journaling and reflecting on my life and work experiences.  Below I summarise the top pieces of learning acquired through my 10 years of blogging, in no particular order.

1. The often I write the better the quality and clarity of my focus, articulation, thinking and memory.  Including improving my vocabulary.
2. I can articulate myself better non-verbally than I can verbally - hence being a better writer!
3. I am a slow learner.
4. I like to talk about what I am doing/have done/have learned/what should and shouldn't have happened - useful for if I forget and helps when providing anecdotal evidence.
5. I am a master of democratising my learning and expertise; through sharing my learning and outputs/outcomes.
6. Develops my skills and provides a base for my reflective practice and scholarship.
7. Ongoing writing and reflection provides evidence for future professional accreditations and qualifications.
8. I can repurpose my writing and thought power into other outputs.
9. My writing is becoming more mature as I grow older.
10. I am slow at processing complex verbal information, therefore I note take a lot which often ends up in blog posts here.
11. Open reflector and sharing honestly about my vulnerabilities, anxieties and negative experiences - with a positive outlook.
12. I naturally use workplace opportunities, for example questionnaires/interviews, meetings (group and one-to-ones) and panel interviews, as learning opportunities to develop knowledge and observe language and practice.  As well as expressing and disseminating my own expertise, as a vehicle to develop my own knowledge and identify gaps. 
13. I am a proud and open introvert, that in certain situations (and whom with) adapts to being extrovert.
14. I visibly realise my strengths, weaknesses and successes and embrace each of them.
15. I am more intelligent, influential and powerful than I perceived I am.
16. I am inspirational and influential to others.
17. Inspiration for writing is always on constant supply - there is always something to write about, hence at least one blog post a month.