Carnival of Leadership Development and 4 Years of Blogging

This month’s Carnival of Leadership Development is hosted by Sharlyn Lauby at HR Bartender blog. I am happy to have my post 3 Lessons in Building Great Relationships with Customers featured there along with some of the best posts on Leadership Development. If you are looking for some fantastic reading on leadership and allied subjects, you should quickly check out the latest Carnival.

Sharlyn and Mr. Bartender are celebrating their 23rd anniversary and hence, the posts in this month’s carnival are organized according to the blog anniversary. During the submission process, I was asked “How long have you been blogging?”

That is when I realized that I will be completing 4 years of productive blogging later this month. When you immerse yourself in doing what you love doing, all ‘metrics’ take a backseat. You just keep doing it without any expectations, simply enjoying the process.  That, to me, is the cornerstone of all success and satisfaction.

My blogging has taken me places without going anywhere. I have some great friends across the globe with whom I share ‘thought-based relationship’. We are connected by our thoughts. I am no where near to being famous or earning money through this blog (and that is not even a distant ambition!). I just love doing it – everything else is a by-product.

I started blogging in April 2006 and wrote my first post titled “Solutions Perspective”. I have come a long way since then experimenting new stuff, overcoming my own resistance to write and sometimes overcoming the “writers block”.

Why did I start blogging?

• because I was passionate about sharing lessons I learned while doing my work.
• because I always wanted to get better at writing and expression.
• because I wanted to ‘explore’ this new fad called ‘blogging’.

How has it helped me?

• It sharpened and shaped my thinking. I became an ‘observer’ to my own thinking patterns and happenings around me.
• It helped me become a better writer and get good at expressing myself clearly.
• I had a heightened awareness about my areas of focus and learned a great deal about them. Lessons I wrote came from things that worked for me and also from reading/thinking.
• Blogging helped me increase my reading, subscribing to other great blogs and discovering new blogs.
• Blogging encouraged me to do more – more reading, more writing and more thinking.
• I understood the power of ‘contributing’ – comments, link love, guest posts and so many other ways of adding value.
• It opened up new opportunities for me through people I came to know via blogging.
• I get immense satisfaction after I write a good post that resonates well with so many people. If any of my blog post so far has helped even few individuals for better, I think all the effort so far is worth it.

So this month is special in more ways than one. Stay tuned for special offerings this month – to mark the 4th anniversary of this blog. I am super-excited.

Have a wonderful week ahead!

Photo Courtesy: Kristina’s Flickr Photostream