About a month ago, I read a tweet from New York Times bestselling author Jon Acuff that (paraphrased) said, “fill out this form to participate in a great adventure”.
Without thought or hesitation, I signed up right away. I really only knew two things for sure:
1. It was from Jon Acuff, a member of the Dave Ramsey team so it wouldn’t be anything bad.
2. If it required actual travel, maybe I could go and it would be a cool adventure!
As soon as I signed up, I was guilty. Guilty of taking a chance on something new. This is not new territory to me, I have taken chances before and most of them have worked out ok. Case in point: How many Elton John autographs do I have? 🙂 I was excited about this new adventure just by virtue of the association Jon Acuff has with Dave Ramsey. And, yes, because it was from Jon Acuff.
I wrote about the beginning of this experiment, when we were given a challenge. Along the way I learned about setting realistic goals and people called Haters. As I read other people’s posts about Haters, I wrote a follow up piece that listed a lot of my own personal accomplishments. Once again, I found myself guilty by association in that I punched fear in the face by not letting The Haters prevent me from achieving my goals.
The Start Experiment had the unique effect of changing my perspective and helping me improve certain areas that I identified as needing improvement. Most importantly, it associated me with a whole bunch of other guilty people –
What are guilty of?
We are all guilty of Punching Fear in the Face. We are guilty of taking the chance that the risks and goals we decide to work on for 24 days would actually, in whatever way, improve our life or the lives of those around us. We are guilty of sharing thoughts, feelings, accomplishments and failures. Some people in the group have overcome amazing obstacles in their life. Others, like myself, just made small improvements every day.
This wonderful group of strangers from all over the US and abroad who had two things in common:
1. We all followed Jon Acuff
2. We all had the desire to help, support and encourage others.
3. We all accepted the challenge to identify areas we needed to improve upon in a 24 day period.
One of my goals during this time was to “improve my business”. Now, that is a very vague goal and I sort of purposefully did that because I wasn’t really sure what needed the improvement. Do you know what I found? People in the group who were experts at marketing and branding who offered to help me. I also found people who are more experienced in the world of blogging who offered to help me with my blog. In turn, I found people who needed MY help with budgeting and planning. We became a community, online, of people helping people. It was inspiring and encouraging to read their stories – stories that in turn kept me motivated to continue making small improvements everyday.
Although the 24 days are over, we as a collective group will remain together to continue to inspire, support and help each other. The GOOD news is that Round 1 went so well, Jon Acuff has decided to start another 24 day Start Experiment.
I want to encourage you to take the same chance I did and sign up for round 2. Here are some things that were written by Start participants, round 1:
“This is what I sent in an email…maybe too much info, but… The START Experiment is based on the premise that fear fears community. It’s a hosted by Jon and his team. You are placed in a team, given a partner, and then given daily assignments that help you move through risk to your goals. Today is day 24 of our experiment, and the experience has been great. We’ve got everything from musicians to writers to authors and entrepreneurs working together. I’ve seen book deals signed, new blogs created, Kickstarter campaigns launched, new businesses formed. Plus some really great friendships have been formed. It’s been a blast.”
“24 days of adventure.
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