Got a Goal? Get a Blog!

I have recently been reminded of the importance of being held accountable when setting a goal. People can have all the goals in the world, but without being held accountable to these goals, they may never reach it. I have often heard that to reach your goals. First you must set a goal, second you must write it down, and third, you must look at it daily. Some goal-setting gurus also say that once you have a goal, you need to tell someone about it. Telling that one person, or more than one person, makes you accountable to someone besides yourself to make that goal come true. If you set a goal, don't tell anyone, and don't reach it, the only one you are disappointing is yourself. If you set a goal and tell someone else about it, you are more likely to try harder to reach that goal because you don't want to be embarrassed by having to tell the other person you didn't reach your goal.

Now try multiplying telling that one person by the tens or hundreds or maybe even the thousands. You can do that with a blog. And that makes the effort you will put into reaching your goal that much more important. It's bad enough to disappoint one person when you have to admit you didn't reach your goal. Can you imagine disappointing your blog readers? It's certainly a good incentive, as I have just recently found out.

My Personal Goal

I have a goal to write full time this summer. I thought it would be easy and I would be able to challenge myself to make good money at it. I just tallied the dismal financial results of my first week as a full-time writer. I tallied these results one week after I started my blog about my experiment. And although yes, I do have to start somewhere on the financial ladder, this somewhere is pretty low. As I report that on my blog, I am embarrassed. But the good news is, each week that I report how I did, I have an urgent incentive to do better because I don't want to be THAT embarrassed again.

Do you Have a Goal?

Do you have a goal that you would like to reach? Maybe you have a goal to lose weight. Or maybe to write a book. Or maybe to save enough money to go on a vacation. Or maybe you want to start your own business. Or run a home daycare. Or start an eBay business. The possibilities are endless. Any of these goals can be turned into a blog quite easily. If you want to run a business, you could start the blog at the beginning, before the business is up and running and write a blog entry about signing up for a class you took on starting your own business. Once you start class, you can share bits of information that you are learning about that you had never thought of before. Then you can add to the blog when you search for an office or design your own business cards. Documenting each step of the way will help keep you encouraged, and your blog readers will also offer encouragement and suggestions. And they will rejoice with you when you open the doors to your business on the first day. Or get your first customer. Readers who are interested in similar goals to what you have will be happy and excited to follow along on your progress. And you can help others accomplish their goals as you show them you can reach yours.

Losing weight would be helpful to many people, and you can even ask people to join in with you through the blog and post their results each week. Each week, you will be encouraged to keep losing weight...trying a new recipe, trying a new exercise regimen, walking farther than you walked the day before, and your blog readers will be there, observing and giving you more reasons to keep up the good work.

Blog Hosting for Free

You may have heard that blogs cost money but two blog hosting websites that I know of that are free can be found at and blogger.com or wordpress.com. ( see links below) Each has pros and cons but would work fine if you are doing a blog as a way to help you reach a goal. Pictures can be added to these blogs as I am sure your readers would want to see your fantastic weight loss results. Or the new office you found. Or a weekly report on your favorite new exercise regimen, such as walking goals starting with walking 1/4 of a mile a day to 10 miles a day, or any similar goals you have set for yourself.

Now go after your goals, start a blog, and help others accomplish their goals as well. If you let me know the address, I will follow along and cheer you along!

If you're interested in following along with my goal of writing full time. I have included the link below.