Why I'm Starting To Write Online

In 2010, I walked the Camino de Santiago as a fundraiser for Operation Fistula . The 31-day hike was a grueling journey of 780km (485miles) that we blogged every day. The daily discipline of walking a marathon and then publishing our progress challenged me in ways I could never have predicted. That journey fundamentally changed my life.

These days, I can't take a month to walk across Spain, but it's time for another challenge. I recently signed up for Ship 30 for 30 , a cohort-based course that will help me publish 30 essays over the next 30 days.

A few reasons why I'm doing this:

What we share could be helpful to others

Our approach is very operational and mixes lots of local knowledge and elements of business into our social impact efforts. I truly do believe that much of what we have learned in our work could be helpful to my peers in the non-profit space. The little bits of learning that I have shared through conversations with my friends who run other organizations have been helpful to them.

I have not found time for communications

I would say that I have not had time, but the truth is that I have not made time to communicate. This has left many of our friends and partners in the dark for all the great progress we have made through very trying times.

I want to do it perfect, so I don't do it at all

The desire to produce some mythical perfect communication keeps me (and others on my team) from producing something at all. Initial drafts that are really good languish through an endless editing process and never get published. I know perfection is a myth and that it is wildly subjective, but I have had a hard time working through my very limiting mindset on this.

Over the next 30 days, I plan on writing about Leadership, Operations, and Data in the social impact sector. But the truth is, I am not sure what I will actually write about as I publish 30 essays. In any case, I hope you'll join me on this little learning journey.