So it was this day last year (2021) when I started to blog, at least properly anyway! I’ve had fits and starts over the years, I’ve had numerous words and encouragements from people to write more, but I just never made the time to do it properly.

Last March as we starting to come out of our second lockdown I listened to a podcast with Carey Nieuwhof and Seth Godin. Minor detail, but I was on an indoor cycle at the time. Seth said a couple of things on that podcast that impacted me. He talked about how when you find the thing you feel you are gifted in you need to seriously practise it.

(The other thing was about teaching but that’s not relevant for this post – just saying!)

Seth has taken his own advice and blogs everyday. In fact in the interview he said that some days he writes up to 5 but doesn’t use them all. Wow! He said he simply looks at the world, asks ‘why’ questions, and even writes about it. The goal, he states, is to not just accept that something happens, but to be curious and ask why. So….. I decided that I wanted to put that into practise. I wasn’t super creative with my practise as I chose to blog too.

I feel like I have a gift when it comes to thinking, understanding, analysing, and explaining stuff so that others can see it. I think its where I can make a difference, and where I feel God and others have spoken into, and so therefore a blog felt like the place to start.

Here are some of the things I decided at the start of my adventure.

• I wanted to do it daily
• I wanted to do it online rather than a notebook so I would feel more pressure to do it.
• I didn’t want it to be my name or to have my name in the URL. At the same time I wasn’t trying to hide who it was writing it.
• I didn’t want to promote it and share it on social media. This was about me and if people found it that was cool but it wasn’t the goal
• Ultimately the goal was to get better at doing this and stretch something I feel God has put in me.

So how did I do one year in?

• Well, I didn’t make it daily (I realised that in the first month) but I did manage 270 posts (24 still in drafts) in 365 days. That’s 5 blogs a week which I’m pretty happy about.
• I kept it online – this was a low goal!
• I changed the name and the URL half way through but my name still isn’t on it. I don’t know if I’ll ever call it something more personal – I can think of reasons for and against it
• I’ve only promoted a post once on social media. It was one I thought might be helpful to other pastors so I broke my rule for that – looking back I’m now not sure why I chose that one!
• Did I improve? Yeah, but not always at writing – some posts are great, some are OK, some are making up the numbers. I definitely am bad at finishing posts! I think what has changed most is my ability to spot, question, and assimilate things I read, hear and see day to day.

Will I keep going? Absolutely! And with that I will finish my post. I told you I was bad at finishing posts.