It’s been three years since I started a blog, and there is no way that I could have predicted how my life would be right now.

When I started, I had been wanting to start a blog for about a year, but never took the leap. I was afraid that I would run out of things to say, but committed to it. It really helped that my new manager Kristi was a writer and bugged me to write a blog. So, I started to write something every week until about a year ago, when I decided to change my commitment to writing a post every other week.

When I started this blog, I was living at my parents’ house wondering if I would ever have a family. Now I live with my wife Leslie and our son Andrew; the irony is, my parents are going to come stay with me for two months while they renovate their house. This blog has taught me about myself, challenging me to take even more responsibility for my life, and just two months ago, it taught me to publish another self-help book instead of my autobiography.

One of the best ways to learn about ourselves is to reflect by writing (it doesn’t have to be a blog). What I have learned is twofold. First, it forces us to bring what’s in the back of our minds to the forefront, and second–and most importantly–it forces us to really complete our thoughts.

We all have inklings of some pleasure or pain. What we want, what we don’t want. Writing it down makes an inkling more complete. It also makes us more accountable for our dreams and our fears.