That’s All She Wrote: Lessons Learned as a Featured Blogger

I have had so much fun and feel so privileged to have been selected as one of GovLoop’s Featured Bloggers for the past three months.  It has been an awesome experience, and I want to say thank you and give a big shout out to my editor Catherine Andrews for all of her advice and support! I highly recommend that everyone look into the GovLoop Featured Bloggers Program and consider applying.

In addition to having a lot of fun, here are some of the lessons I learned over the past three months of blogging:

Words have power:  Through my blog posts, I discovered that words really do have power – the power to connect, engage, encourage, question, and prompt people from many diverse backgrounds and situations to come together, think critically, and share solutions and ideas.  I always appreciate it when fellow GovLoop readers and contributors comment on my blog posts, share their own experiences, and find connections with something I have said.  Forums like GovLoop are so important because they are places where can use words to affect change and make a difference. Let’s continue to challenge and encourage each other by being active participants in GovLoop!

Deadlines create discipline: I have never been one to procrastinate, but I think I underestimated the value of deadlines for accomplishing tasks on a regular basis until I was required to write a new and interesting blog article each week for the past 12 weeks.  Having the weekly deadline forced me to be disciplined in my time management and to plan ahead for when I would have time to write and research information for my blog posts.  At the end of these 3 months, I am now in the habit of weekly writing and I’m thankful for this discipline in my life.  Here’s to hoping I can continue this discipline to finally finish up the book I’ve been writing about my work in Madagascar.  If you have a task to accomplish, I highly recommend that you set a firm deadline and have someone keep you accountable to that deadline…you might be surprised at just how much you can accomplish!

Writing is good for the soul: I have always loved writing, but this Featured Bloggers program has reinvigorated my feelings about writing and its importance in my life.  Writing these blog post has helped me focus my thoughts, express my opinions, discuss important issues, and share ideas and questions with my fellow GovLoopers.  Writing these posts has helped me connect with a lot of public servants from across the nation and has formed a bond between us civil servants in our quest to make our town, city, state, and nation a better place to live.

So, thanks for taking the time to read my blog posts, and thanks GovLoop for selecting me to be a part of the Featured Bloggers program.  It has been a life-changing experience! Farewell for now, and let’s all continue to write, share, and encourage each other in our public service.

In the comments below, please share:

1.If you write/blog/journal, what have you discovered are some of the benefits of this communication for you and for others?

2.  If you read and comment on others editorials/blogs/etc, what do you enjoy most about reading and sharing with your colleagues?

Christina Smith is part of the GovLoop Featured Blogger program, where we feature blog posts by government voices from all across the country (and world!). To see more Featured Blogger posts, click here.