I’ve been working on my startup for the last few months, while holding a full time job. I am reminded again and again why I have so much appreciation of founders that do this over years, until they finally take the plunge. It’s. So. Hard!

I have been working for the Liberian government for over 1.5 years now. I had worked in partnership with governments of other countries before, but this was the first time I truly worked for one.

Last week, we had a series of meetings with a development partner to plan the next four years. It was part an envisioning exercise and part a “realistically, what can we implement” brain teaser. I found my colleagues and myself trying to explain, again and again, the challenges, visions, and opportunities we see.  Struggling to explain it in a diplomatic way that development partners can understand. To bring them onto “our” side.

I was surprised how much I am starting to understand this dynamic between “recipients,” “donors,” “assistance,” and power. I’m really grateful I have this opportunity to work “on the inside” for a while. I hope I never forget these lessons.

For some reason, I have not been able to blog/journal consistently over these years. Whenever I read back to my old entries, I always find them interesting and useful, so I really want to be more consistent at this! Here’s to another attempt at being more consistent.

Life is all about trying again and again, right? I’m starting to learn this lesson slowly over the last few years.

I recently read about setting “micro-goals” as a way to encourage us to form habits or get things done. It’s always better to do a tiny bit of what you wanted, rather than nothing at all. I need to keep reminding myself that!

I saw a sign during a long bus ride from Sagada to Manila the other day:

Life is Short. Don’t Rush.

I’m sure it was to remind drivers to be careful with all the mountainous twists and turns, but it’s very appropriate for life in general. Too bad I couldn’t catch a photo of the sign.

By the way, I’ve started an instagram account called Development Musings. It’s a combination of my photos and short thoughts about working in this field.

I decided three days ago I wanted to go on a trip. So I’m visiting some friends in the Philippines and Indonesia for the next month or so. I’d be mostly traveling on my own during the week and meeting up with friends during the weekend. The perfect balance.

Trips don’t always need a purpose, but for this one:

• I was getting restless staying at home for too long. This will be an adventure to spend my newly regained energy.
• I want to try being a digital nomad with the course I just launched.
• I need to work on flushing out the big new idea I have
• I want to get some interviews done during the trip with some interesting people working in development.

Today, I soft launched my new venture: an online video course called “Jump Start Your Career in International Development” hosted at Udemy.

The course is aimed at 1) fresh university graduates and 2) professionals looking for a mid career change who are curious about how it is like to work in the profession of international development and humanitarian aid.

For more information and free preview videos, please visit:  InternationalDevelopmentCareer.com or www.udemy.com/international-development-career . Further questions and comments are very appreciated and can be directed to tiffany@internationaldevelopmentcareer.com.

As you are a dear reader of my blog, please use the coupon code TTBLOG for a 50% discount!

I spent quite a few hours helping a good friend prepare for an important interview today. My take aways:

1. Helping other people really clarifies my own thinking about topics and techniques
2. Using tone of voice, speed of talking, and gestures to emphasize are all really important. I need to practice more.
3. Take a moment to collect your thoughts before answering.
4. Decide on your three main advantages that make you the best candidate. Drive that home through each question, in a slightly different way. Use the bridge and stop technique to change the questions you don’t want to answer into an answer where you can go back to your three main advantages. Use the questions to build your narrative.
5. I’m a pretty good interviewer, but as an interviewee, I need more work. (Don’t we all)

Just booked a two month long trip visiting some friends in SE Asia. Going to try out being a digital nomad and have some quiet time to develop the new idea. Very excited.

Energy level: Higher than normal. This is an achievement: a personal high in the last half year. The old me is back.

P.S. videos still exporting…

I’m now finished editing my 30+ videos, each 2-6 minutes. But, little did I know that exporting videos to mp4 format takes so much time…

Nervous as I’m so close to publishing. I’m hoping to catch the just graduating wave starting in May…

And new goal: apply to Start Up Chile!

I wrote a few posts ago that “being at the desk when inspiration hasn’t struck is just as important as being at the desk when inspiration has struck,” or, in short, “Be There.”

“There” can be any number of goals.

For exercise, it can mean going for a walk instead of a run if you’re not feeling as energetic that day. For blogging, it could mean quoting an interesting article instead of writing an original post. For learning to be vulnerable, it could be mean instead of giving vulnerability an awkward hug, maybe just have a cup of coffee together. For battling misogyny, it could mean instead of arguing with an all male team at work, maybe just save your fire for another battle.

It is not a weakness to not be perfect, day in and day out. (Even when the current project is to learn to celebrate imperfection.)

Be There. Just sit where you are and push forward a few inches. Those add up.