http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/06/blogging-gym-brain-boost/

The Future Buzz

image credit:  lastbeats

If you’re a blogger, marketer, designer or any type of creative,
your best ideas probably hit you when you’re not actively looking for
them.  Rather, they strike when you’re engaged in another task, or
sometimes quite randomly.  That is why it is vital to carry a pad and
pen (or the digital variety) with you everywhere you go.

What happens to me in many cases is my best ideas strike while in
the shower, driving my car, at the gym or while running/rock
climbing/swimming — times when I can’t just stop what I’m doing and
write down an idea (hey inventors, here’s an idea:  a water-proof white
board for the shower).

Anyway while working out the other day, it struck me how going to
the gym is highly analogous to blogging.  The analogy is as simple as: 
going to the gym is good for your body, as blogging is good for your brain.

Think about it:

• People get equally excited about the ideas of blogging and going to
  the gym and start out strong thinking how easy this will be, however
  only a few push through the dip (133 million blogs since 2002, yet only around 76,000 blogs have a Technorati Authority of 50 or higher).

• Most people only go to the gym a few times before giving up.  Most people only put down a few blog entries before giving up.

• Both blogging and going to the gym are large commitments if you want to be successful, but the rewards are huge with each.

• When you’re new, it’s easy to get both discouraged yet inspired
  when you see people in great shape.  Same with seeing bloggers with
  hundreds of thousands of readers when you’re just starting out.

• The payoff for success at blogging and going to the gym is not
  instant, rather the payoff is due to sustained effort over time with
  cumulative benefits.

• Once you get into a groove, blogging and going to the gym become easier, more natural and much more rewarding with time.

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Tonight at 9.30PM I am running an Online Basic English Conversation English lesson with the content ‘Blogs and Journals”…(details from activeenglishspeaking.com)

You are invited to attend and share your opinion, and also learn how to write a basic bog or journal if you wish to do so.

It is amazing how many people write wonderful emails and letters, and talk clearly and with knowledge, yet shy at writing a bog or journal because..’they have no idea how to do that…” almost as if writing a blog is another dimension to writing and speaking.

People tediously write emails about their trips, their experiences, and bulk post them to numerous people. Many people have letter boxes overflowing with thousands of ’saved’ emails because the emails  contained content they ‘may read one day again’

One day I discovered that writing in a blog, and posting the blog somewhere accessible to my friends and readers meant that I would keep in constant contact with them, and they had constant contact with me, as hopefully the idea was that they could reply back on the blog, and I would have their comments there too. This was a social blog, and as I was traveling a lot at the time, the easy way of staying in contat with all my friends. This was my first blog on Yahoo Groups

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newslink

It began in 1999 when I was teaching in New Zealand. I had already had 4 addresses in New Zealand in a period of 5 years…and with each change came a change in Internet provider..that is how it was then..and my son came up with the idea of me starting a journal on Yahoo Groups…and the first entry is still there when I asked him what that was and how I should start. I was also running teacher Groups at the time linking with Epals..and the changes meant that each time I lost my mailing list…and Newslink possibly still has that original list of member addreses, though many addresses may have changed as many have changed providers as broadband became available. My n also suggested I change and get an email address with yahoo..and those two are still there, anI have used Yahoo now for over 10 years. Interesting..a decade with Yahoo..my next blog title maybe.

I next started using 360 Yahoo and Typepad…and then WordPress and finally my own websites..but this arricle is not about my blogs..though it well could be.

Yes, blogging is a fantastic brain boost…it is also a way of storing all the mind trips we do…and records of the journeys we travel.

Maggi Carstairs  2009