Reflecting on My First Year of Blogging
What I learned from a year of writing and publishing
It's been a year since I started this blog. I wasn't sure if I'd stick with it. I'd tried writing before and always gave up. But here I am, still writing, still publishing.
Looking back, I'm surprised by how much I've learned. Not just about the topics I wrote about, but about writing itself, about sharing ideas, about putting work out into the world.
I thought I needed to have everything figured out before I wrote. I'd research endlessly, trying to become an expert before I shared anything. But that meant I never shared anything. The posts that worked best were the ones where I was still learning. Where I was honest about not having all the answers. Those felt more authentic, more useful. I also thought I needed to write long, comprehensive posts. But some of my favorite posts were short. Just a thought, an observation, something small. Not everything needs to be a manifesto.
Writing regularly helped. Not every day, not even every week, but consistently. It became a habit, and habits are easier to maintain than goals. Sharing what I was learning worked too. Instead of waiting until I was an expert, I wrote about what I was figuring out. That made the writing process itself part of the learning.
People actually read what I wrote. Not thousands of people, but enough that it felt real. Some posts resonated. Some didn't. But knowing people were reading made me think more carefully about what I put out there. I also learned that writing helps me think. When I explain something, I understand it better. The blog became a tool for learning, not just sharing.
I'm going to keep writing. Not because I have to, but because I want to. Because it helps me think, because it helps me learn, because it's become part of how I work. I don't know what the next year will bring. Maybe I'll write more, maybe less. Maybe I'll find new topics, maybe I'll go deeper on old ones. But I'll keep writing, and that's enough.
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