why

Alexandra Samuel of Social Signal has an excellent post about of how to use your Twitter and Facebook status messages to change the world, one tweet at a time:

Many of us are posting daily, hourly or minute-by-minute snapshots of our activities via Facebook status updates or Twitter. These status updates could be a great way for us to share the small steps we're all taking to strengthen our communities, reduce our personal environmental footprints, increase issue awareness, support people in need, empower and mobilize marginalized communities, support social justice -- all the many many things people in non-profits, activist groups, government agencies, social enterprises and multinational corporations are doing to move us towards a world that is socially, environmentally and personally sustainable.

This weekend I painted the "thought prompts" on the Walls of Hope for the upcoming Challenge Walk. Not a big thing, but still important. There are four Walls, and the prompts are "in honor of" and "relationships" and "realizations" and "meaningful moments" which really each are getting at why people will walk 50 miles. Wait a minute, isn't WHY we do this is the most important part?

Alexandra asks:
What did you do today that moved your work, your organization or your personal practice forward?

And I ask, "why?"

Rather than complaining or telling the world you're eating hot oatmeal, sharing a sense of accomplishment towards a goal (and why you're reaching for it) is inspiring.

~Beth