Throw a pebble into a still lake and the splash is over in a second. The ripples keep going long after, out to edges you can't even see from where you're standing.
That's the thing that fires me up more than anything. Everything we do sends out ripples. The things we say, the things we post, the way we speak to the person who makes our coffee.
Nobody's permission needed
A generation ago, if you wanted lots of people to hear what you had to say, someone else had to decide you were good enough. A newspaper editor. A radio station. A TV producer.
Now you can take your phone out of your pocket and share your experience with thousands of people in seconds. Nobody has to approve it first.
That's an amazing opportunity. It also comes with a responsibility, because what we share shapes what other people think and do, often in ways we'll never know about.
Hearing other people's experience
I've heard it said that hope comes from hearing other people's experience. I believe that. Some of the most useful things I've ever read were just someone being honest about what happened to them and what helped.
So the question I ask myself is simple. Is what I'm putting out moving people forward, or dragging them down with me?
People remember how you made them feel
Think about a film you saw years ago. You probably can't remember the whole plot. You remember how it made you feel.
And two people can feel completely different things about the same film. Some people come out of Titanic in pieces. Others think it's a happy ending, because she loved him for the rest of her life.
We each bring our own feelings to the stories we hear. Which means you can't control how people react to what you share.
What you can control is why you share it. Put something out with the aim of helping, and more often than not it helps someone.
Why I pressed record
I wrote this when I was posting videos most days. Since then I've made 218 episodes of a podcast, and I never knew which conversation would land with which listener. That part was always out of my hands. Why I pressed record never was.
It's also why I think the best marketing earns you a conversation rather than shouting at people. And why words are like weapons applies to every caption as much as every argument.
Before you post your next thing, or send your next message, ask who it might help. If you can't think of anyone, change it until you can.
First published July 2017.
