WHAT IF…..(INSPIRE FIFTY)

Last week when I was visiting my daughter Kelsey, she shared with me the most amazing presentation that she had done for her marketing analysis class. They had to develop a product, put together a marketing/advertising campaign for that project and present it in class. Her product was a magazine called IF, which stands for Inspire Fifty.

The concept of the magazine came from Tom’s shoes where for every pair of shoes you buy he donates one to children who need shoes. In Kelsey’s case, 50% of the proceeds go to student scholarships or small business development.…thus Inspire Fifty. The tag line for the presentation on IF magazine was “What if….”. That is what really got me thinking. In the creativity world, “what if…” is a great phrase to “think diffferently” as Rolf would say (and yes that is 3 fffs). Lately though, the phrase “what if…” has been on my mind a lot……not necessarily in the creative mode.

What has been with me lately is how I can occupy my mental space with “What if….”. It is absolutely crazy making. I know this comes from the part of me that wants to figure everything out before it happens so I can know what to do and how to react….in other words …. control. One of the gifts that both Kelsey and MP give me is that they deal with the unknown by letting it happen and THEN figure out what to do. This is a stretch for me.

The message I got from my family was that “worrying” means you care. I am not saying that there is not truth in that statement, I just want to find another way to care. So what if I inspire fifty percent of my brain power towards just letting things happen and fifty percent to having faith that when they happen everything will be OK……..that would be a 100% improvement…….I’m inspired.