Do the right thing
Written by: Brady Johnson
Published: 11/9/22Do the right thing
Inspire Others Organization means the world to me. I started this project last winter break in my basement. Designed the entire website, created logos, and created a mission statement that I vowed to carry out. Did I fulfill my mission? As of now, no, I didn’t and that is what is weighing me down at the moment. The weight of responsibility and guilt for not being able to invest my time and energy into this project has led me to develop some bad habits. And I know that I can not inspire others if I am unable to inspire myself. Those of you wondering why I would be posting this, it is because I have to be transparent when dealing with a sensitive subject like mental health.
I feel like I have been cheating myself and people who view our page by putting out half hearted content about a delicate subject like mental health and that is not fair to me or my viewers. I told myself I would take a break this past summer and beginning of the school year and let others take control but that is not how this should run.
I received a lot of skepticism when I told my family and friends that I would start a nonprofit, and rightfully so. I do not have a steady income at the moment and had no previous experience running a nonprofit. But I did it anyway because I had this hope in my heart that I could make a difference. So that’s what I did, my main focus last spring became Inspire Others.
I spent a lot of money, invested in legal documents, bank accounts, merchandise and more. It started to drive me a little bit obsessed once we started going. I felt like I needed to make sure my money was well spent and we were getting the recognition we deserved. It was all I would think about, staying up late at night, handing out bracelets in the dining hall, tabling at games. It became too much, I was not stable and I ended up breaking down in tears one night because of all the pressure and expectations I was putting on myself. When I left my dorm early that semester to move down to the cape, I started a new job and for the first time in a while Inspire Others took a backseat.
I worked at a bar in the summer and I worked like crazy, 60 hour weeks, not because I wanted to but because I needed something to distract myself from what was hurting me. But it turns out that that distraction only hurt me more in the long run. The topic of Inspire Others would come up at work and I would go through my normal pitch, people would be impressed and then I would go back to what I was doing. As the summer went on I was less and less invested in Inspire Others and because of that my guilt just kept rising.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved working in a bar, it was my passion. But looking back on it I found that I was working so much to distract myself from my responsibilities, I just kept suppressing my feelings deeper down. The truth is that I have not been happy for a while. There are glimpses of happiness throughout my life but it is very hard to string together a couple good days. So before I set back in the drivers seat I need to work on myself.
I lost a lot of momentum this past summer and when I got to school this fall I found it very hard to find the motivation to uplift others after I fell into a depressive state back in Amherst. The more time goes by the more guilty I feel and that is no way that anyone should live.
So here is my plan moving forward.
We are going to take a break for the next couple of months. I am never going to give this up on Inspire Others because we have a lot of great ideas, I just need more time to work on myself before investing in other things. Taking time to plan out and work on our execution instead of making empty promises will help us in the long run.
I appreciate all of the support we have received in the past year or so and I promise that our mission will be fulfilled.
Love you all,
Brady Johnson
Inspire Others mission statement- “To help people find their voice and feel comfortable expressing their feelings. We want everyone to know that you are not alone and someone is here for you. We also want to help spread awareness around mental health and help release the sigmas attached.”