How Doing Good Hurts Sometimes

Even now, after a decade of working with and within numerous and varied social/sustainability change-oriented fields, I often have to remind myself why I do what I do. Or, more honestly, why I care. Because doing 'good' can really hurt sometimes.

I’m not talking only of the financial pain, or the bad days when the uphill battle weighs you down and fractures your spirit. I'm not even alluding to the emotional turmoil that being an isolated operator brings, nor the exhaustion from batting the status quo and the endless outside forces that seem intent on breaking you. No, the hurt I’m talking about is often self-inflicted, and fed from the constant deep seated desire to do good. Many of you will know it all too well, the internal fire that fuels your passion and drives you forward - that’s the engine room for the hurt that I’m talking about. For me it hurts because it never goes away.  A constant desire to participate in the creation of a more equitable society is like a dull ache that can’t be remedied, but from that same place comes intense joy and reward.