Where it Began

When I started SWELL, I thought I had a clear idea what it was going to be. But as I sat down this week, and ‘Issue #26’ was the first thing I typed on the page, I realized how much has changed since I started. In SWELL, and in me. And how far it is from the initial idea that got the whole thing going.

When I began, I wanted to write about sobriety and wellness, which has played a central role in my life over the past several years. I was enthusiastic about it and eager to share that passion with others, so it seemed like a no-brainer. 

But as I was writing, that content started to feel surprisingly shallow. Sure, a lot of people can relate, but in what way? Everyone wants to be healthier? Everyone wants to live longer? Okay. Why not write about the fact that everyone wants to breathe?

I didn’t want to become a cheerleader or motivator, but it felt like I was circling something. So I just kept writing. 

When Intentions Meet Reality

As I wrote, I let my mind work one step further than it was the week before. Why sobriety? Why wellness? What stops people from making these changes in their lives?

Writing weekly forces a kind of honesty that’s hard to manufacture. You sit down, you find the thread, and somewhere in the process of pulling on it, you discover what you actually think. Not what you planned to think, but what the writing surfaced.

I didn’t set out to write about identity and fear and resistance. But the more I wrote, the more those were the themes I kept coming back to. The newsletter found its shape the same way a lot of things do—through movement and adjustment.

And in the writing I found a throughline: resistance to change happens in the moments our intentions meet the real world.

That intersection is what I wanted to write about. But not just write—build.

Making it Tangible

When we think about personal change, we mostly think of growth being internal. Mindset shifts, habit changes, identity work. It exists in the abstract—somewhere outside of where we are now.

But what makes change exciting is when it shifts from a mental exercise to the real world, and you have tangible evidence that your change is real.

With this in mind, I’ve long been considering how to expand SWELL beyond a newsletter. Beyond sharing thoughts and ideas. I want to put tools in people’s hands. I want to help people make change tangible in their own lives.

That’s what Baseline Builder is.

It’s a simple 3-minute assessment where you answer questions about the state of change in your life and get personalized results about where you currently stand. The theory behind it is simple: it’s easier to move forward when you know what’s working in your favor or against you. That’s it.

Sharing it here matters for me too. Since starting SWELL, one of the main changes I’ve been working on is improving my technical skills—building the SWELL website, automating the newsletter, learning how to use AI to build new things. Nothing makes those changes more real than sharing the work publicly.

Out of the comfort zone, into daylight. The moment my intentions meet the real world.

Unfinished Business

I’m not sure what SWELL will look like in the next six months, or the six after that. It’s unfinished because I’m unfinished. That’s the argument the newsletter has been making all along.

If you want to see where things currently stand—for you, not for SWELL—you can try the Baseline Builder. It only takes a few minutes, and it makes something that’s usually abstract a little more visible.

The 26th issue isn’t a milestone. Just a marker on a path that’s still being cut.

As always, thanks for reading. I’m truly happy you’re here. 

All the best,

Nate