Changing Your Life for a Blog

I just want you to know that this hasn't been easy for me so far. I've found this first week of blogging to be quite a challenge at times. I've enjoyed it, and I'm pleased with the results, but it hasn't been without its bumps in the road.

I'm basically changing my life for this blog. I've been getting up early (for me, really early) every day in order to post something before other bits of life get hold of me, and I've been trying not to stay up late at night in order to better enable the early rising. I'm basically trying to establish a routine.

Sticking to things is not my forté. I'm easily distracted and easily lured into the intrigue and shininess of the new. So the preparations for this blog— choosing a web host, installing WordPress, picking a theme, tweaking and customizing it, creating and massaging the graphics, applying the colors—have all been really enjoyable, and my motivation was supported by the fact that I'd given myself a deadline—my birthday—for the actual launch of the site.

The launch itself was fun. There was nothing earth-shattering about it; there were no fireworks, cannons, trumpets, or large drums. It was just about me telling people the site was there, and knowing that people were looking at it. And that was enough.

Now, seven posts later, it's just me and the content. I know there will be more tweaking and customizing as the site grows, and that will be fun too. But for now, it's all about choosing topics, writing about them, and letting people know the posts are there.

Even in only a week's worth of posts, I've managed to cover quite a wide range of subjects. I find this both gratifying and oddly disheartening. I'm interested in so many things, that I can't imagine restricting myself to only one or two. But on the other hand, are people out there really going to want to read a blog that's all over the map?

The answer to that question, of course, is that I should write for myself first. I can't start by trying to figure out what people want to read about. That way lies madness. I have to dig into myself first, and pull out the bits that itch. If I'm honest with myself, and honest in my writing, then the actual subject matter will take second place. Whatever I write about will have my own stamp on it. And that will make it more readable.

The doubts and fears creep in because this has become important to me, and I want to make a real go of it. I want to build a good blog and have it read. I want to discuss the things that get me all juiced up and hear from others who are equally juiced.

That sounds kind of exciting.

I'm not doing this because I want to be popular; I'm doing it because I want my words to get out there, and I want them to mean something.

So am I changing my life for a blog? Or is the blog changing my life?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

(Because writing this post made me think of the phrase "If you build it, they will come", and because we all need some inspiration from time to time, here's the trailer for Field of Dreams, one of my favorite movies of all time.)