2016: My Blogging Year

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2016: Getting Ready was all about the goals we set as a couple. Today, I’d like to start talking about my personal goals.

For a few minutes on the 1st of January, I stopped to think about anything I actually got done in 2015. With the exception of the Mystery CAL Afghan, none of my other projects were completed. Isn’t that embarrassing to say out loud? But I dare say it, so I can own it and move on.

I can hide behind work and use it as an excuse for not doing much else, but that wouldn’t be fair. There are, after all, 24 hours in a day and I always have a choice in how to spend each one. I just chose poorly, perhaps. Or I don’t choose at all. Maybe my priorities shifted. Hmmm. It seems like it’s the creative pursuits that had taken off the ground. My knit afghan is almost finished. The only reason it isn’t done yet is that I found other projects to start before I even completed it. Maybe part of me doesn’t want to complete it just yet! That’s a theory. A major resolution for 2015 was to do better as a memory keeper. In fairness, I have completed more Project Life pages in 2015 than I have ever before in the many years of attempting it. I intend to do better in 2016.

Now, 2016 will be My Year. And in My Year, I do the things that my heart yearns for. Here’s one of them:

2016 will be a Blogging Year

I have written sporadically in 2015. There are so many factors that I don’t care to explain now. But one thing is for sure: I let blog envy, and other people’s rules get in the way of my voice and my story. I kept thinking so hard of defining what my blog was going to be about, and the categories I would keep writing around, that I ended up not publishing anything at all.

I know. Finding a niche is key if you want a successful blog. Clear categories make it easier for readers to navigate and engage. I get it, really. But maybe I am not ready for that. I am not ready to think about readers who are not yet here. I don’t have a community of readers! No one follows my feeds! What readers are you talking about? Pardon me, I know someone out there reads this and I don’t mean this to be an insult. Someday I will write again thinking about my audience. For now though, I need to blog for myself. And hopefully, an honest voice will gain some following.

It was twelve years ago when I started to blog. I fell in love with it. Loved the blogs I read, and the ‘friends’ I got to find. I’ve been in many different platforms, and I’ve been thru many different phases. For a time, my blog earned a decent amount of money. Not decent enough for me to live off it, but enough to support hosting, and some online shopping. So I thought that was something I should pursue. But things changed and maybe I wasn’t so willing to change along with the times. Or maybe I just lost sight of what it was that mattered most to me.

Did traffic matter? Sponsors? Or was it the conversations? One thing’s for sure: I’ll never be a popular blogger, and that’s fine by me.

So this year will  be my blogging year. I will try not to think of categories, Pinnable posts, etc. I will just write, edit, and Publish. Some posts may take days to finish, others just 10 minutes. I will write, edit, publish. Repeat.