Steve Pavlina has a new article on Blogging for Personal Growth, which I'll just touch on a few points here. Read the rest of the article at Steve's blog, where he talks about how blogging may be one of the best tools of personal growth.

• Courage - sharing yourself publicly builds courage
  
  
• Giving Hope - what you blog about can give others hope
  
  
• Motivation - helping others can be a better motivation than just helping yourself
  
  
• Self-Assessment - blogging can help you develop a more honest self-assessment
  
  
• Self Esteem - helping others builds your own self esteem
  
  
• Connection - blogging is predominantly a social experience
  
  
• Transforming existing relationships - blogging helps strengthen both online and offline relationships
  
  
• Self-Expression - you can instantly self-publish whatever you want
  
  
• Accountability - you are accountable for the impact of your words on your readers
  
  
• Contribution - you can make a difference in other people's lives
  
  
• Synergy - relationships develop between you, the blogger, and your blog readers
  
  
• Income - monetizing your blog brings you money
  
  
• Marketing - your blog automatically notifies people and websites that it's been updated
  

Please visit Steve's site to read further detail with each point. Well worth the read.