This is going to be a “Why you should start a blog” post. A few of my friends have admired me for having a blog for the past 6 years. It’s a long time to be writing and putting my thoughts out into the world to be read, criticized, scrutinized, related to and maybe even comfort others.

To think about it, I originally started to blog because I wanted to comfort others. It came from a place that can be summed up with this quote from Aung San Suu Kyi:

[themecolor]”When you are feeling helpless, help someone else.”[/themecolor]

I started blogging after I moved to New York City in the summer of 2007. I had been there half a year and the city’s contagious creative energy got a hold of me by then. It was also just after Christmas and I had the post holiday blues, big time. So I wrote this post to help another girl who might be out there in the world and also has the blues. It was such a cathartic experience to write that up and send it off into the internet.

When I started blogging, it helped me to get things off my chest. I wasn’t venting and complaining about things like poor service at Starbucks or the funny smell in the NYC Subway, but I was airing out my thoughts. I was giving oxygen to the part of my brain where ideas are born and I was realizing that without this oxygen, they would just die.

I know people who have started a blog excitedly and after 5-6 posts, just stop writing. I think I know why that is. People stop writing blogs when they start writing for others and not themselves. If those same people continued to write in their blogs just for themselves, with no guarantee that anyone else would read it, then would have, well, continued.

Blogging has helped me in my self-development journey so much, as well as my basic “growing up” journey that I am asking you to start a blog if you don’t have one already. If you are still not convinced, I promise you the following:

Blogging will help you to be more creative and to ACKNOWLEDGE your creativity.

You are a part of creation and therefore your inherent nature is to create. Blogging can be an outward expression of acknowledgement of this creativity that comes from deep within you. Acknowledging it by putting it out into the “interweb” gives it a breath of life so it can nurture you back.

Someone out there NEEDS to read what you have to write. Desperately.

When writing about a very personal story for example, you might be thinking “why would anyone want to read about my life?” Well, someone out there does want to read about your life. Your perspective on something is going to make someone else understanding that thing better. Your warning story will prevent someone else from making the same mistake you did. Your attempt at uplifting your own mood by researching tips of “how to make post holiday blues go away” will help someone else who is also really sad at that moment. Don’t underestimate the immense help you are providing.

Blogging is like a living résumé‎ of your talents and aspirations.

When I started blogging, I was writing about topics like how to stay alert in boring meetings and how to tell when your coworkers have a crush on each other. Maybe silly and slightly innocent, but I was reporting on topics that I was seeing around me having started my professional career recently. And you know what? People were reading these posts! Google Analytics told me so. Slowly my interests changed more towards fashion and my blog transformed into a fashion blog. My writing skills when reporting on events got better and my opinions got more honed in. This lead to invites from Fashion and Beauty PR companies in New York and I got to experience some really cool things through that. As I grew, my focus changed into personal & self-development and I launched this website. The Lifester is where I continue to blog to help myself and others.

Blogging is a public declaration of your passions.

It will help you to express, grow, share and learn things about yourself that you didn’t even think of.

What are you waiting for? To get started, WordPress and Tumblr are two great options. I will write more about how to start a blog so keep an eye on this site. In the comments let me know what your fears are about starting your own blog and one small way you can overcome it. I’d love to hear and so would that other girl who has the same fear.

Happy Blogging!