Before the Blog Part 1: Know Your Purpose

Series Index: Before the Blog: Introduction to the Series

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As Nietzsche said, “To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.” Make conscious decisions; your blog will reflect your effort.

Why Blog?

An obvious question gets an obvious answer, right? It’s worth thinking about, though. I spent a long time wondering if I should start this blog, and after doing some research, I found that reading a couple articles helped validate my thoughts.

First, a pessimistic outlook: How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger. Yes, the article exaggerates, but it makes a good point: blogging isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. After reading that, do you still want a blog?

If so, answer these 23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers – Is a Blog Right for You? Obviously, my answer turned out to be “yes.”

Setting Goals

Everyone has a different approach to goal-setting: personal goals, short-term goals, practical goals, lofty goals. (Say “goals” ten times fast, why don’t you.) Regardless of how you go about it, just have a goal in mind for your blog. Write it down, smile at it for a few minutes, and move on.

Here are my goals so far:

Unrealistic Goals

• actually learn everything
• change the world as we know it
• have millions of readers
• make millions of dollars

Realistic Goals

• learn as much as I can
• use this blog to motivate myself
• eventually have a few readers
• make this a useful resource for fellow autodidacts
• promote autodidactism in whatever way I can
• eventually make a little money through advertisements just so I can say, “Look, I made money from my blog!” (Superficial, yes, but let me indulge myself just this once.)

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With just a little thought, I’ve already laid the foundation for every decision I’ll have to make about my blog.

Next in this series: Before the Blog Part 2: Pick Your Topic

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