This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Quitter Conference in Nashville. I was super excited about this event and it did not disappoint. I was afraid it might just be a glorified rehashing of the Quitter book, but it wasn’t. There was more detail, more meat, and more ideas. I walked out the door on a high and ready to throw myself whole-heartedly into my dream.

I am still processing, still answering workbook questions, and still working on my plan. The conference made me realize how important it is to have a plan and not just pursue your dream aimlessly. I have some really good ideas on how to move forward but just need to sit down and write them out and organize them in my brain.

One thing the conference addressed was social media. Jon spoke of blogs and gave good ideas on how to use them. Blogs can create community, support and a practice space to work on your dream. I hope to take this blog and use it for those purposes.

Some of the blogging tips Jon offered were:

Set the right pace for your blog. How many times a week will you commit to writing your blog?

I set a blogging goal a little over a year ago of blogging three times a week and followed through for awhile. I attempted to resurrect this in recent weeks and discovered that it’s just not a realistic goal for this point in my dream pursuing. So, in an attempt to not overachieve and be crushed at my inability to follow through, I’m going to make a goal of writing once a week. Not only that, I will post the same day each week. For now, I will post on Mondays. If I find that I have more time and more content, I will up that goal. For now, it’s time to start small and achieve.

Build a smart social contract. What are the expectations your readers already have? If you are going to build a blog, how can you set clear expectations for your future readers?

This is one I feel I am currently not doing well at. I intend to brainstorm and come back to it. I’m not sure what expectations my few readers have.

Choose which type of blog you’re going to be. There are three types of blogs: Share a passion, share ideas, or share a life.

This is another one that I need work on. I tend to just ramble and write about whatever strikes my fancy. However, most posts have to do with my life, so currently I am closest to a life blog. I need to either refine that or decide if I should take this in a different direction.

There are more blogging tips, but for now, I’m starting with those. Stay tuned for further insights.

I hope to chronicle my dream progress in this blog. Thanks for coming along for the ride.