For a long time, I have wrestled with the idea of writing, sharing thoughts and opinions with others but never had the confidence and I guess the full motivation to do so. I always found reasons why I couldn’t, not good enough, don’t have the time, what would I write etc… But as I get older and become more aware I realise that now more than ever you shouldn’t ignore what you feel. Suppressing and putting off thoughts such as these only serves the purpose of procrastinating what you know you should do.

It’s funny how if you ignore your sub-conscious it has a way every now and then of reminding you its there, these things have a way of bubbling up to the surface.

So today as I write this, my first blog I  have decided with the advice of others to jump straight in and write. As I do this the words are flowing and this feels good, expressing thoughts in the knowledge of sharing and hopefully helping others. Whilst my first blog may be short what I take from this is the first step is probably the hardest, but once you get going and cast away ideas of writing a perfect blog it becomes easier.

So I have got to this point, do I have the discipline to carry on. I hope so, yes. Not just with this piece but hopefully future blogs. I am now 200 hundred or so words in and it occurred to me that I have no structure or focus in what I am writing.  Jumping both feet in only gets you so far. So what am I writing about…Ah blogging for the first time that’s it.

In the past, I read about writing blogs absorbed some of the information and filed it away for future use. One of the things I can remember is that Blogs should be authentic and be engaging they should be about giving and sharing information. Well so far I may have achieved only one of these principles, so here goes for another, some information… My advice to anyone thinking about writing a Blog is to slow down be observant. Everyday conversations and experiences can be so rich with material. Which is fine if that’s what you want to write about. If it’s not then my advice would be to think about why and who you are writing for. Is it to reach out and share thoughts and ideas or is it purely for your self to satisfy that itch. For me, I sit between the two. I like the idea of sharing and exchanging ideas but also realise in addition that I may need to respond to comments. That’s going to be hard work! So at present, I am undecided which is fine, after all, I have jumped straight into this. But it does remind me of a conversation I had with a family member the other day when I mentioned I was going to write a Blog. The reply I got was, “why do you want to do that, you will be trolled”.

My immediate reply was I want to do to this and I didn’t want the actions of a few stopping me from achieving my happiness.  Surprisingly this way of thinking has come relatively late in my life, but it is so empowering! I now understand that some people will judge you no matter what and you should not let that prevent you from doing what you feel is right.  On reflection, I understand the comment came from a place of fear and understanding of how sensitive and sometimes paranoid I can be. But up until that point I had not given the reality much thought. How would I handle this? Common sense tells me to simply ignore, but what are the practicalities if you want to share and exchange information. It reminded me of phrase I came across a while back, “If you don’t want a debate to write a blog”. But I do, I want to share and engage in the exchanging of ideas. Test myself to see how open I can be, even to the ideas I do not agree with or like. So in typical fashion, I took some time out researching how to deal with Trolls or unwanted comments and this is what I came up with. 1) People will always have an opinion which you may like or not agree with. Get over it and just do. To quote Dita von Teese,

“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”

2) You cannot control how others think but you can choose how you react, ignore, filter and block are always options. 3) Whilst the opinions and actions of others should not stop you from pursuing your dreams, be open and mindful of the opportunities to grow and learn. 4) As with most things, there is no single right answer, give it a go to see what works for you and adapt along the way.

So as I finish my first Blog, so far so good with just writing but now here comes real test of publishing and having the discipline to carry on.