Time passes by so quickly, huh? It seems to me that it was only two days ago that I posted about Missy the Monkey, and now, here we are! This week’s theme is IMPORTANT.
And, tell me, what is more important than the loves of your life?
That’s my Mum on the left, and my sister on the right.
26 commentsToday’s “Save the Ocean” post is on whale-watching trips. Go read it 
My half-French-half-Canadian friend, Zhu wanted to know what I have learned in 2007. I wished I had kept an account of the things that I have learned in the entire year, but I didn’t, so my list wouldn’t be comprehensive 
ON BLOGGING
Blogging is time consuming. Actually, I have just learned in 2007 that blogging is a very time-consuming activity. Especially when subjects needed to be researched and points and facts needed to be doubly checked before anything is published. On top of that, the process of sourcing an image and making sure that the right credit goes to the right picture also requires a certain degree of attention to details.
Blogging is therapeutic. Not that I am depressed, but whenever I feel down (we all feel like crap once in a while, don’t we?), I could research and write a few blog posts at one go! On top of that, blog-hopping and networking also takes a lot of those gloominess away 
Blogging keeps the mind active. I think about what to blog most of the time when I am alone. When I started blogging in 2005, I always thought about the things that I could blog about to bring traffic to my blog. But lately, I kept thinking about the things I could blog about to increase awareness on certain issues. I think about how to promote the issues, and I think about all those bloggers whom I could approach for assistance.
Blogging for money isn’t my cup of tea.
I have gone a full circle from thinking about “blogging for money” to actually doing it, to doubting myself for writing those sponsored posts because I sometimes tried too hard to blend it into my blog, to empathizing with my readers, to thinking about the directions I wanted my blog to head to, to not writing those sponsored posts anymore.
I wanted to be a campaign blogger.
I enjoyed spreading awareness on issues that needed the attention, and I enjoyed sharing with my readers the many ways that they could help the needy. And over time, that particular post grew into a category by itself and then a website by its own!
ON A MORE PERSONAL SCALE
Taking action pays. This definitely is the most important lesson that I have learned in 2007. I have learned that taking action and following up on it get things done. I have also learned that if you wanted something badly enough, you will go to great lengths to achieve it. At the beginning, it wasn’t easy but eventually it became a habit and taking actions slowly turned into a habit of mine.
Good time management increases productivity. I have started using a diary-cum-organizer in 2005 but only in 2007 I realized the power of good time management. In my not-very-fancy organizer, I wrote down things that I could and couldn’t remember, things that I wanted to remember, things that I needed to remember and other things that other-people-should-remember-but-I-bet-they-won’t. I started writing my TO DO list whenever I anticipate a hectic day so that things that needed to be done are done.
It doesn’t take a year to write a thesis. We’ve all heard our seniors say how difficult it is to write a thesis and all that jazz. Yes, it is very difficult to START writing it, but once momentum is gained, it becomes a routine, and when you see your Word document grows from 15 to 85 pages, you get the kind of satisfaction and motivation to even work harder on it. Saying that “it is very difficult” is only an excuse. All you need is a strategy. And possibly a company 
The sky is the limit, when the heart is in it. ‘Nuff said.
So what did YOU learn in 2007?
19 commentsYou saw this coming, didn’t you?
Seriously, this is what happens when you read too many posts on “blogging goals” in a very short time frame. Goals that other bloggers set for themselves get stuck in your head and you start thinking about YOUR own goals. And then you start dreaming about your own subscriber base and Technorati and Alexa rankings and the number of page views and unique hits you can get in a month and the number of posts you can churn out in a week and number of comments you can generate from those posts and all that jazz.
Then you realize that you can’t shake those thoughts off. So what do you do? You blog about them, of course!
So what are MY blogging goals?
I hope it doesn’t sound too superficial to say that my blogging goals do not come in a package of RSS subscribers, number of posts and comments, number of page views and unique hits or even the amount of income generated from ads on my blogs. In fact, my blogging goals do not come in numbers and they cannot be measured the way other bloggers measure theirs.
My first blogging goal is to continue learning because there is just so much to learn from and about blogging. I have found blogging enriching in many ways, from meeting new faces to managing my time and resources to increasing my productivity.
I am also planning a blogging schedule so that blogging doesn’t take too much of my time and so that there is a balance between time spent blogging and networking. We all know that blogging is a very time-consuming activity, especially when it involves researching and ensuring that the facts are presented as they are, so a little more time and care should go into making sure that everything is correct when posts are published.
The way I see it, environment-related issues will be a hot topic next year because we are getting more and more aware of our environment as well as the need to conserve the place we live in. Otherwise, we will be leaving our younger generations a planet that is no longer “fit for human habitation” with the increased evidence of global warming and what-have-yous.
Apart from consistent blogging, I would also like to spend a little more time in social media sites such as forums, 9rules, StumbleUpon and Digg because these are places where we can find like-minded bloggers and initiate a relationship with them (not THAT kind of relationship!).
If I could afford the time, I would also like to be an active guest-blogger so that I am able to contribute articles to other blogs, and with that, reach a wider audience because I believe that guest-blogging is a very good way to exchange expertise, experience and a great way to improve one’s writing too.
But of course, if you’d like to guest-blog on Giving Hands or Turtle Talks, you know I always leave my doors open for you
So if my blogging goals cannot be quantified, how do I measure my success?
I consider myself successful when somebody tells me how much he/she has learned from my blogs and how much he/she appreciates my efforts and when somebody leaves my blog knowing that he/she has not wasted his/her time reading my posts
Now, what are YOUR blogging goals? 
Grad student. Unemployed. Recently returned from the United States on a 4-month scholarship.
Random 9rules Members
The Giving Hands Through Pelf's Eyes