Why I Post

Here is an interesting question from an interesting conversation I had: Why do I post?

Why do I spend my own money to host a website where I work hard to gather information and my feelings and my learnings for something that will probably never make any money, and not even reach many people? Why am I so involved on social media when it is fraught with horrible, ugly acting people, and there are so many other worthy things to do with my time?

For all of the time that I have invested into posting so many different things in so many different ways, I have really not thought about why I do it. What do I get out of it? Is it really worth it?

I went over my website, my social media posts and asked myself honestly: Why did I post that? What was my goal? What was my motivation? My simple answer would be that I post to try to help people. Helping others is a huge desire in my life and always has been. It is part of what makes me tick. When I see a need, I want to fix it or fill it or solve it.

Writing in particular has always been a way of working through my feelings, and getting them out. It is me learning and being curious about myself and what’s happening to me. Posting what I write feels very satisfying and almost final—like something I can check off my checklist and move on to the next thing. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be coherent. It doesn’t have to be resolved, it just has to be out into the open.

I don’t collect figurines, I collect information. I get it from my mother, who has filled up multiple filing cabinets of random newspaper and magazine clippings, various notes from conferences and church meetings…because who knows when someone will want to see that again? My collection is mostly virtual, with (hopefully) a saved copy and backup somewhere.

Lately I have discovered that creating brings me great joy.

With a few clicks and I was able to find the above graphic and download it. But lots of times I will look for something I am sure someone has posted to the Internet and I won’t find it. Or not put all together like I want it. So I make it myself. Visualizing something and then creating or manipulating images to bring that idea to life is exhilarating. I am really grateful for Piktochart—it helps with the skills I am lacking to still be able to end up with the results I want (or something close). And there are a lot of tools like that out there: I hope you find yours.

Finally, I laugh sometimes when I realize that this fascination with learning, creating, and posting had led me to my current career, which I love. I represent an amazing ministry in Brazil to churches and individuals—with the help of online and print resources that I create. I also am the Head of Publications for World Renewal, which means posting on social media and creating newsletters and figuring out the best way to share what information where.

It’s a good question. Why do you post?