One of the many side-benefits of blogging is that it will lead to your personal development. I say that because I have experienced personal growth in many areas of my life since I took up blogging as a hobby and an avenue to interact with the rest of the world in written form.
Apart from being a veritable platform to share my thoughts and experiences with the world, I have also now realised that blogging is for personal development.
In this post, I will show you several ways blogging has helped me in personal development. If you have been blogging for a while, I am sure you will identify with some of the benefits on the list.
Otherwise, feel free to extend the conversation by sharing your own experience in the comment section.
8 ways blogging has helped my personal development
1. Blogging has made me wiser and more knowledgeable.
As a blogger, you don’t only write posts, you read other peoples posts as well. You also find yourself researching on areas of your interest. As you do all that you will pick up plenty of wisdom and knowledge.
Apart from sharing your own thoughts, a huge part of blogging involves learning from other people through what they have written.
A reader of this blog agrees with that when he stated that “… blogging is strongest in the realm of knowledge and understanding. You can gain a great deal of insight into how people think from the vast number of personalities spread across the many forums.”
2. Blogging has made me a better writer
Writing is not blogging. But blogging is writing and more. And the more I blog, the more I write and the better I become at it.
I have not arrived yet, but I know I have improved on my written communication skill since I took up blogging. For someone whose first language is not English, blogging has definitely paid-off in helping to hone my writing talent.
So if you consider yourself an aspiring writer, blogging is one step you should take in that direction.
As one commenter on this blog once stated, “I believe that blogging can definitely be helpful in achieving personal development goals. Not only with getting to develop yourself by writing out your thoughts and beliefs and helping yourself grow from laying it all there. But, you also get thousands and thousands of examples and lessons to learn from other bloggers in the community.”
3. Blogging has strengthened my ability to handle negative criticisms.
Believe it or not you will have fun blogging. But at the same time, you will face some negative backlashes. The fact that you are getting criticised shows that you getting noticed. Or would you rather be ignored?
I don’t know about you, but as for me, I have never faced as much criticisms and negative attacks in life as much as I have faced in my short blogging journey. I am okay with the fact that not everyone will agree with my points of view. But it degenerates to a negative experience when some people become abusive or unnecessarily annoying with their comments on my blog.
That doesn’t mean I should shut down the blog. But it certainly means I should find the best ways to handle the negative criticisms.
And I do that by learning from the criticisms, responding in love rather than with hate, trying not to be offended and by staying focused on the bigger picture – refusing to give up.
I already talked about that when I advised that despite the challenges you might face along your blogging journey, you should not quit on your blog’s mission.
4. Blogging has improved my interpersonal relationship skills.
I am sure you have encountered some internet trolls whose stock-in-trade is to post “inflammatory and digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages” on your blog. To be honest, they are not fun to deal with, and I have encountered a couple of them! But I would say I am doing better now in handling such people than when I started blogging.
I have learnt the hard way! I am not saying I have arrived. But both online and offline, I have improved on the way I relate with people on the blogosphere.
Blogging has taught me to be more patient, more gracious, and more understanding with people.
Some people may behave nasty to you, that’s their cup of tea. You have to be nice. It may not be easy, but don’t give up before trying.
5. Blogging increased my discipline with time management.
Just like many people, I have many times been guilty of wasting my free (valuable) time doing not-so-productive things (eg watching TV) and procrastinating on doing worthwhile things. But blogging has helped me use my spare time more productively.
As blogger, you write a lot. And you need to read wide as well. You need to discipline yourself more with the time at your disposal to achieve these two goals.
6. Blogging has enriched me spiritually.
In a way, blogging has assisted in my spiritual growth. As some one whose opinions are largely based on Biblical worldview, I read several Christian blogs whose authors have continued to impress me with their deep insights and teaching of God’s word.
In that process, I have been fed with the truths of God’s word in ways that have left me spiritually uplifted. So if you are keen on your spiritual growth, be aware that blogging can help you in that area.
7. Blogging has taught me Web-designing
If you had any web-designing skill before starting your blog, could you raise your hand please?
Well, congratulations if that’s you! As for me, I had zippo idea about web designing prior to when my blog was set up.
Setting up my blog was my first experience. Thanks to WordPress’s menu-driven processes, I can set up a functional blog for you if you want.
Before I started blogging, I had thought web development was not my thing; that it was meant for only programmers or those who have a working knowledge of markup languages such as HTML and CSS.
But now having successfully designed my own blogs and a few for other people, I am convinced I would not have known web designing if not for blogging? So you see what I mean?
8. Blogging has increased my creativity
I have found that there is an improvement in my mental creativity as a result of blogging. That’s hardly surprising because, you find that in writing blog posts, you have to be imaginative, you brain-storm on topics to blog about, you engage in meaningful conversations and so on.
That’s because creativity involves “the use of imagination or original ideas to create something.” And both imagination and originality are familiar concepts in blogging.
You have read my experience. And hopefully, you were able to observe that beyond being a form of self-expression, blogging has become an avenue for personal development for me in many ways.
My knowledge in many fields, places and people has increased through blogging. I hone my writing skills as I write posts after posts. I am being more productive with my spare time, and I am now more self-confident than ever with blogging.
Over all, blogging is helping me become a better version of myself. I am not saying all this to draw attention to myself. Rather I am just trying to show you how blogging can help you in your personal development journey using my own experience as a case study.
I will like to hear your own story in the comment section.
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Victors Corner Blog 