Why I Blog | Giftie Etcetera: Why I Blog

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Why I Blog

In 2007, I had a new business (my law firm) and a baby. I had dark circles under my eyes and no hope to ever pay off my student loans. (Now I have hope. No paid off loans, mind you, but hope!)

Sometimes, I had more work than I could handle. I would take work home, make client calls after supper, and think about my courtroom cross-examinations during 3 a.m. feedings.

But I worked all alone in a small office. I was learning to run a business. Lawyering was easy. Taxes, hiring staff, and fixing the copy machine for the 34th time in a single day was getting old fast. Plus, due to the nature of my growing firm, sometimes all I had to do was work on marketing or organizing my files. Seems all the clients needed me at once, and in between, most didn't need me (or my billable rates) at all.

On the slow days, I jumped on Blogger to update my friends and communicate with them. We all had tiny, wandering posts. We talked of babies, languages, politics, and parties that we'd be too tired to attend.

Those old posts are still up here, somewhere. I keep thinking of hiding them, especially as they reflect me in my 30s (a decade ago) and as a sleep-deprived, raving lunatic. (New moms ALL have my compassion. I know what you are feeling, honey, and it does get better.)

I haven't hidden them yet.

Fast-forward a few years.



blog, off topic, parenting

I am loving where my life is now. No more business worries or diaper duty. No more small business. Instead, I have a great part-time job, a husband who is making a decent salary, and two fairly independent kids. (Independent is defined, for this purpose, as "can put their own pants on.")

But I realized at some point in the last five years that I have a skill set developed way before 2007 that I happen to enjoy sharing with the world.

It's not dancing. It's not lawyering. It's not parenting.

What I am gifted at, turns out, is knowing how to use paper to plan my world and communicating that knowledge in a clear way.

My blog moved in the direction of planner porn (which is not as naughty as it sounds), I made friends in the blog world, and my life changed. 


Teaching others to plan made me a calmer, better planner. Being a calmer, better planner made me a better wife, mother, friend, and employee.

It also meant more time for dancing. That's just bonus.

Etcetera.

Partied at: Thiink Tank Thursday, Showcase Your Talent Thursday, Idea Box Thursday

6 comments:

pattygardner.com said...

It's always fun to hear other people's motivation for blogging. Thanks for sharing.

Geertrude said...

Confession: since I've found your blog I've been reading my way through your archives, including the older ones. It was fun to get to know you a bit through them. What keeps me coming back to your blog though is the planning.
I've learned a lot from your posts and am constantly adapting your advice to fit my way of living (and pocket sized planner).
Slowly but surely I feel in control again, even though my planner showed me I had to do the hard thing and postpone a very important deadline (publishing my tenth novel) because there was no way I was going to fit it all in...

About blogging: I quit blogging last December after 13 years of blogging, quitting and starting to blog again. Someday I'd like to do what you do: find something I can be confident about being good at and blog about it. But for now it's kind of nice to live life without reviewing everything to decide to blog about it or not.
I'm very glad you're blogging the way you do and enjoying it too.

Anonymous said...

I love that you found your niche! Hoping I find mine!

Anna said...

It's fun hearing the story of how you started. :) "Planner Porn- which is not as naughty as it sounds" Love it.

Unknown said...

I love your blog and your gifting is really a great gift to me. Thanks for sharing!

Also you are funny :-D

Unknown said...

Dancing is the up and downs of life. lol I haven't gotten to your old posts yet, so don't go hiding them! lol