Today is Challenge DAY! (Gulp!)

July Ultimate Blogging Challenge*

I follow a lot of people on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter and as I result, I receive copious amounts of email.  Seriously.  Co-pee-us.  

I try to stay organized (you have to when you run six different email addresses), and of necessity I need to use ruthless tactics to stay one step ahead of it.  Some days are more successful than others, so when I searched for the JUBC* info I became very frustrated when unable to locate information I know I saw two days ago.

As a result, I believe I enrolled at least 3 times.  I do have a JUBC* folder standing by at the ready, and I even posted a pre-challenge blog.  I still am uncertain how to access the Facebook JUBC* group page <sigh>, or how to let Michelle Shaeffer and anyone else know when and where I've published my posts.  Nevertheless, I have begun.

WHY Blog?

I have wanted to be a "writer" for most of my life.  My favorite classes in school and college all contained lots of writing exercises.  Somewhere along the line I became very sensitive about putting my words "out there".  

I fooled myself into believing that as long as I was staying within the realm of blogging, writing training articles, and posting on LinkedIn that I was not really putting my talent on the line.  After all, I was not writing poetry, short stories or fiction.  

As a business owner, mentor and trainer I need to be able to communicate well in order to build a strong team and to be able to recruit people to join my team.  Writing is a large part of building. I have relied on my writing ability throughout my entire working career as an Executive Administrative Assistant, and have learned and improved along the way.  I look at blogging as an ongoing learning process.  This challenge, although daunting, will prove to be a valuable learning experience.

What is next?

Participation in the JUBC* has already provided me pages and pages of material designed to help me navigate the pathway to successful blogging. If you blog, part of you dreams about becoming popular and respected for your posts and part of you dreams of earning actual money for your efforts.  Just imagine being paid to write!  You can see which aspect holds the most attraction for me.

Having ideas for blogging topics may not be the biggest challenge for me; organizing my thoughts and providing valuable information to my reader is a large challenge and at times fills me with trepidation.

I hope to obtain feedback from other bloggers and experts during this next month of writing.  I hope to accept criticism gracefully.  I hope to learn from all the other participants.  I hope to be coherent at the end of this month.