The writers at Truly Motivated work from lived experience. Their bylines represent real places and real expertise, not remote takes on abstract topics but grounded writing from people who know the landscapes and situations they describe. That is a deliberate choice: personal development writing that does not come from a specific life and a specific place has a way of becoming generic very quickly.
The three contributors below come from different corners of the country and different kinds of work, but they share an instinct for paying close attention and a refusal to dress hard-won lessons up as easy ones. Each profile links straight to that writer's story, so you can move from the person to the page in a single click.
Charlottetown, PEI - Writer
Sarah Jenkins has lived on Prince Edward Island for most of her adult life, apart from a period studying in Halifax. She returned to Charlottetown in her late twenties and has been writing about the island's landscape and its effects on how people live ever since. Her work draws on environmental psychology and the tradition of place-based writing to explore what it means to live in close relationship with a particular geography.
Her interest in seasonal rhythms grew from her grandmother's kitchen garden and the hard-won lesson that the island's seasons operate on their own schedule, indifferent to human convenience. She writes to help readers recognize that same indifference - and learn from it rather than resist it.
Read Their StoriesHalifax, NS - Craftsman and Writer
Marcus Cole spent eleven years building a career in software engineering before leaving to teach himself woodworking in a converted utility room in Halifax's north end. The transition was not planned as a statement. It was, he has written, more like an experiment he could not not conduct.
His writing explores what physical craft teaches that knowledge work cannot - specifically the kind of learning that only happens through sustained, honest feedback from materials that push back. He still takes occasional contract work in software, but the workshop is where the thinking gets done.
Read Their StoriesCanmore, AB - Wilderness Guide and Writer
Julia Chen has guided backcountry trips through the Bow Valley and the wider mountain corridor for seven years. Before that she worked in Calgary, a job she left not in one decision but in a series of small ones, as the distance between who she was at work and who she was outside of it became too large to maintain.
Her writing focuses on what prolonged time in wild landscapes actually teaches - specifically the difference between the experience people expect from nature and the experience they encounter when they are genuinely paying attention. She is interested in presence as a skill, and in what the indifference of the natural world offers that human social environments cannot.
Read Their StoriesWhy Named Authorship
Every piece published here carries a name and a place because the writing is the product of real experience, not anonymous content production. The byline is a commitment to the reader: this person was actually there, and actually thinks this, and stands behind it.
Personal development writing that does not come from a specific life and a specific place has a way of becoming generic very quickly. The specificity of the byline is what keeps the work accountable to the actual world.
Pitch a Story
Writers with direct experience relevant to the topics covered here are invited to pitch. Use the contact page to send a brief introduction and story idea.
Get in TouchQuestions, Answered
Because the writing is the product of real experience, not anonymous content. A name and a place is a commitment to the reader: this person was actually there, actually thinks this, and stands behind it. The specificity is what keeps the work accountable to the real world.
The current writers work from Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island, Halifax in Nova Scotia, and Canmore in the Alberta Rockies. Each writes about subjects they know firsthand, from seasonal living and manual craft to wilderness guiding.
Writers with direct experience relevant to the topics covered here are invited to pitch. Send a brief introduction and story idea through the contact page. The editorial team reads every submission and responds to those that are a good fit.
New pieces are added when they are ready rather than on a fixed schedule, so that quality is never forced down to meet a deadline. Following the weekly email is the simplest way to hear when something new goes up.