I decided to go way back to my first posts and see how long I have been blogging. I realised I would have been blogging on WordPress for 7 years this year (my blog anniversary is sometime in August) and a couple of years before that on Blogspot. Wow! That’s a long time to be blogging, that too anonymously.
I revisited this topic again when sometime last week, I came across an opinion piece in an Indian newspaper by a famous author who was arguing about the privacy issues that a famous Bollywood couple are facing over their new baby’s photo. The baby’s photo was published across media when the doting father put it up as his Whatsapp profile picture (as most parents are wont to do so) and she argued that in this day and age of digital invasion, especially for a high-profile couple like these two, it was par on course, and not something they should take seriously. I am not going to link to the article, nor mention any names, though any Indian who reads this, may know who I am talking about. This article again raised the issue of being anonymous on social media.
Today, with oversharing being the norm, being someone who hides behind an identity on social media, I am probably an anomaly rather than the norm. With the exception of Facebook and LinkedIn where I am present as myself, I blog under a pseudonym on all other media. I guess I am not 100% anonymous here – you guys do know that I live in Singapore and have two children who are twins and are around 13/14 years old and in secondary school. But I have still not shared more details about myself or a photograph of me and my family, which seems to be what most family and lifestyle bloggers (as I see myself) have on their About me page. Maybe someone who is diligent can find out who I am, but I’d like to think that I am not someone who is famous or infamous that people are really curious to know whom I am in real life.
I know it’s quite hard for me not to build traffic to this site because I can’t just link posts from here onto any of my other social media accounts, so conversely I am actually proud of each and every new subscriber as I know you’ve come here organically and because you like what I write. This is pure validation to someone who considers herself as a closet writer.
I also want to protect BB & GG from any adverse effects of my blogging. Technology is jumping by leaps and bounds and what is probably in the realm of science fiction today may be a something very normal 10 years down the line. I want them to start and live their lives on a clean slate and don’t want any embarrassing photos or blog posts to pop up when a future employer searches their name a few years down the line when they start work or even when they apply for admissions at their dream schools. After all, even today a sweep of your social media profile is done when you are looking at hiring new employees or even students and you don’t want something awkward coming up when your name is searched.
So there you have why I chose to blog anonymously. I am still not sure if this was the right decision or not, but it’s something I chose to do and will continue to do so moving forward.
I am the same too, I’ve made resolutions about the things I want to change about myself this year. So far, so good, but I was wondering if this year will be my breakout year where I actually complete them or as usual, stop before January ends. So I went and researched how I can actually make sure I keep my resolutions for 2017.
Be Realistic: Let’s be honest here, everyone wants to look like the current Ms Universe but someone who is say 120 kgs can’t become 50 kgs in one year, not without resorting to drastic measures. So be realistic about the goals you want to achieve. If you aim to read books this year, maybe you could start with one book a month?
Create regular targets: This is basically breaking down your goals into smaller, bite-sized portions which allow you some successes during the year as well as will not discourage you, especially if the goal is slightly beyond your capabilities. If you aim to save $1000 by the end of the year, then saving slightly less than $100 per month will do the trick.
Keep a diary: A diary, physical or digital will help you document your progress, help you track and celebrate success and also pinpoint failures. This will keep you on track and also once you are documenting your progress, you become inclined to actually go ahead and keep doing what you need to do to achieve the goal.
Celebrate Successes: When you achieve any of your mini goals or are on track to achieving your goals or even keep your resolutions for an extended period, then celebrate it by doing something for yourself, like having a spa day or buying new clothes etc.
Be accountable: Share your goals with family or friends. This will allow you to become accountable for them and when you know people are going to ask you about your goals, you do take extra effort to make them complete.
Don’t give up: Failure is just a stepping stone to success. It’s a very rare individual who will be 100% consistent in achieving his goals through the year. We all are apt to have periods when we slip up. Don’t take these periods of slip-ups as if you are not going to achieve your goals. Get up, dust yourself and go back to the last day you were accountable and then continue from there.
