Back at the start of my DPG course, we all took a 'lucky dip' for a challenge and as I saw that my number related to 'post a blog' my heart sank!
I have never been one for putting my thoughts out there. I obviously have opinions, and am quite happy putting my point across with friends or colleagues, people in the pub, but the thought of putting something out into the 'world wide web' sent me into a panic. I am not really a fan of facebook and I am a reluctant user of Linked In so am not used to living my life electronically.
So for the last 3 months I have been reading and browsing hundreds of your blogs and responses, always feeling that all the comments were really incitefull and everyone that had made a comment had more or less got the subject sewn up and there was nothing left for me to add.
So here I am, at 6.00am, the morning of my workshop and the deadline for my blog, putting my thoughts out there.
I hope this will give me the courage to join in those conversations in future, and maybe blog again.
Comments
Janet......i'm loving the honest of what you have written and thats so important when writing, either your own article, thoughts or commenting on other peoples.
I'm sure that you will always have useful comments to make - one trick i do, especially when I see lots of other comments is to ignore them and write my comments. It might be repeating what other people have said but then you might have something, just a little bit different, which is useful to the person who has written the blog.
Use your course as good source material for blogs - i did when I wrote some of mine - have a read if you have a few minutes. One all about Remembering to Remember and the other about Reinforcing Learning.
Good luck and keep it up!
Blake
Make that 5 comments ;-)
Janet I love that your first blog has inspired others to do the same and well done Lucy!
I think the fear factor of doing anything new is always high but sharing your thoughts, opinions and even your experiences with a wider audience (potential millions) is nerve-racking to say the least.
I focus on the positive aspects and impact these things have and if you hadn't posted this blog Janet then Lucy would not have posted hers......you've inspired others and role modelling doing something new!
Lucy your point is interesting around wanting to be a well known blogger being read by millions. The most popular blogs I read are by people / organisations who are open, authentic, credible, honest and interesting and of course provide some benefit and value to me a reader.
The other BIG benefit of blogging is that it is a reflective experience helping you to think about subjects more thoroughly and order your thoughts logically. The writing process can be a real benefit in helping you come to conclusions and if you've benefited in some way from writing it then does it matter if no-one else reads it? If they do and they get some benefit from it then it's a bonus and a great feeling :-)
Here are a couple of blogs here and here about blogs which give you some handy hints on getting started and making the most of blogging. Looking forward to your next installment :-)
Wow - 18 views and 3 comments.
Thank you all very much - may be this will be the turning point for me !
Well done Janet! Personally, I always quite liked the thought of being a blogger and having a worldwide following who were excited to see what I'd been doing and were interested to know the intricacies of my life but the thing that has always stopped me is what if nobody ever read it.....?!?! Id be mortified!! ha ha :)
Well Janet you can go in to the workshop this morning with your head held high as you are now an official blogger! You have also had your first comment. I do understand that it is a big thing and this form of communication can be very scary indeed to put yourself out there so well done.
I'm always thinking about what I can do to help / support with this transition from reader to blogger and always encourage people to blog about their experiences so I'd be interested in your thoughts on this? I do like the idea of the lucky dip challenge!
As they say the first time is always the hardest, so should be plain sailing from here on :)