A few months back I introduced you to the Motivate (Beta) Fellows. Back then I described my promise and goal for the Motivate experience as follows:
For 8 intense weeks, together they will be on a real adventure, having committed large parts of their lives to first learning more about themselves, discovering more about their purpose, and then finding a way to live it.
Let's see if I lived up to this promise and what the outcome of this project has to do with you.
The Results
I am happy to say that all 3 fellows grew as people from their self-discovery and each took concrete steps to live their discovered purposes.
Last month I shared with you Carl Jefferson's purpose-living project he composed as part of his Motivate (Beta) experience. He and his project were featured in February's Here Are 2 People Taking Action. When the Fellows had their wrap up call last week, Carl shared with us that he is now gathering the resources needed to launch a pilot of his idea.
During the Motivate (Beta) weeks Kyle Hartman rediscovered his passion for experiencing storytelling and his purpose for helping others literally tell their stories. Kyle describes himself as "not a storyteller". Even so, he has discovered a way to live that purpose. He has added to his social circle a community of storytellers and he has taken concrete action to organize a local event inspired by The Moth slams.
Nicki Pombier Berger used her Motivate (Beta) experience to get the clarity she needed on how her work, her pursuit of an advance degree, and her role as a mother and an advocate for a child with Down syndrome all connected. As a trained oral historian, Nicki has begun collecting stories from adults with Down syndrome and other disabilities with the goal of capturing their voices without the filter of organizations and caretakers getting in the way.
I expect they will keep me posted on their future progress and I will in turn keep you posted.
What Worked and What Didn't
The projects where the fellows needed to take action on what they guessed were their purposes seemed to have worked.
The opening 4 weeks that had with more introspective assignments, and no concrete action in the world, sort of worked. I believe they were the right questions and exercises, but the group seemed to quickly lose momentum. The next one of these experiences needs to mix the introspection with action.
The 8 weeks of this experience didn't really work. It was too short of a time I think for the projects to really achieve resolution, and too short of a time to dig into the exercise. The fellowship-like experiences I have had (you can read about them here and here if you're interested) were all a year or more. I don't know if a year is necessary but it certainly needs to be longer. Related to this was the breakdown of my scheduled topic plan and weekly written "lessons".
The periodic instruction-based Motivate (Beta) webinars open to this community failed. I tried to use a free webinar service called Anymeeting but the audio didn't work and it was a frustrating experience. Many of you signed up and tried to participate. I apologize for not coming through. Next time I will need to just bite the bullet and pay for a reliable tool. Also, I need to keep in the mind the risks of using untested tools.
The social mechanism of group calls didn't work even though I really wanted them too. After a while I just stopped trying to organize them. Among other challenges, the first barrier was a symptom of the fact that this was a web and phone based experience. The 3 Fellows had a tough time developing the trusted and rapport they needed with one another to truly take advantage of what such a group can offer. An initial face-to-face gathering would have helped, but 1 Fellow was a 1,000 miles away from the others and 8 weeks was not enough time to make that logistically work. Maybe video conferencing would be a good alternative. Even though it would cost, that may solve this issue and also the webinar issue. I should note that by the time we were done with the experience, the 3 Fellows learned they could trust each other enough to provide the support and accountability a group like this can bring. In fact, we have scheduled an "accountability" reunion call for this summer.
Something that really worked was the one-on-one mentoring calls. That was the time that I most valued in this process and I think it was the same for the Fellows. All of the projects described above grew out of these calls in one form or another. It was also when I was able to provide the most value to the Fellows. They all were also very helpful to me.
Was This Perfect?
No.
Should I have done this and should I do something like this again? Yes. Motivate (Beta) and the other projects related to Mighty Purpose, are perfectly aligned with my purpose and the reason why I started this last November.
Did it cost me a lot to try living my purpose via this project? No. Though, if I had spent a few more bucks it would have been better for all of us. This is the point you should take away from this post. It hasn't cost any of the Fellows, or me, all that much to try something purposeful. Do it right, it shouldn't cost you too much either. Just try something small.
Another example for you to consider. Carl's full project will probably cost more than $30,000 to pull off. But, he has chunked this larger project into smaller pieces and he can start something for anywhere from $0 to $3,000, and investment of some time. You can, and should, do that too. Just try do do 1 cool thing. And, don't wait.
What's Next?
Some of you have already asked when the next Motivate experience will be. So let me bring you all up to speed.
I have been working on a web-based structured learning experience connected with one-on-one mentorship, and possibly including a social accountability aspect. I will either offer this experience for individuals here on Mighty Purpose or for the leaders of non-profits and other organizations through www.boardtest.org.
Now that I have catalogued what went well and what didn't with Motivate (Beta), I need to apply those lessons to this new experience. If I offer this outside of the context of an organization, like with this past Fellowship, then I need to connect these web-based lessons to tangible real world action. I also need to figure out a mechanism to help participants hold themselves accountable to participate in the experience.
But, I won't think about this too long. After all, we learn the most when we take action and pay attention while we do it.
Be well,
Sterling Lynk
I am happy to say that all 3 fellows grew as people from their self-discovery and each took concrete steps to live their discovered purposes.
Last month I shared with you Carl Jefferson's purpose-living project he composed as part of his Motivate (Beta) experience. He and his project were featured in February's Here Are 2 People Taking Action. When the Fellows had their wrap up call last week, Carl shared with us that he is now gathering the resources needed to launch a pilot of his idea.
During the Motivate (Beta) weeks Kyle Hartman rediscovered his passion for experiencing storytelling and his purpose for helping others literally tell their stories. Kyle describes himself as "not a storyteller". Even so, he has discovered a way to live that purpose. He has added to his social circle a community of storytellers and he has taken concrete action to organize a local event inspired by The Moth slams.
Nicki Pombier Berger used her Motivate (Beta) experience to get the clarity she needed on how her work, her pursuit of an advance degree, and her role as a mother and an advocate for a child with Down syndrome all connected. As a trained oral historian, Nicki has begun collecting stories from adults with Down syndrome and other disabilities with the goal of capturing their voices without the filter of organizations and caretakers getting in the way.
I expect they will keep me posted on their future progress and I will in turn keep you posted.
What Worked and What Didn't
The projects where the fellows needed to take action on what they guessed were their purposes seemed to have worked.
The opening 4 weeks that had with more introspective assignments, and no concrete action in the world, sort of worked. I believe they were the right questions and exercises, but the group seemed to quickly lose momentum. The next one of these experiences needs to mix the introspection with action.
The 8 weeks of this experience didn't really work. It was too short of a time I think for the projects to really achieve resolution, and too short of a time to dig into the exercise. The fellowship-like experiences I have had (you can read about them here and here if you're interested) were all a year or more. I don't know if a year is necessary but it certainly needs to be longer. Related to this was the breakdown of my scheduled topic plan and weekly written "lessons".
The periodic instruction-based Motivate (Beta) webinars open to this community failed. I tried to use a free webinar service called Anymeeting but the audio didn't work and it was a frustrating experience. Many of you signed up and tried to participate. I apologize for not coming through. Next time I will need to just bite the bullet and pay for a reliable tool. Also, I need to keep in the mind the risks of using untested tools.
The social mechanism of group calls didn't work even though I really wanted them too. After a while I just stopped trying to organize them. Among other challenges, the first barrier was a symptom of the fact that this was a web and phone based experience. The 3 Fellows had a tough time developing the trusted and rapport they needed with one another to truly take advantage of what such a group can offer. An initial face-to-face gathering would have helped, but 1 Fellow was a 1,000 miles away from the others and 8 weeks was not enough time to make that logistically work. Maybe video conferencing would be a good alternative. Even though it would cost, that may solve this issue and also the webinar issue. I should note that by the time we were done with the experience, the 3 Fellows learned they could trust each other enough to provide the support and accountability a group like this can bring. In fact, we have scheduled an "accountability" reunion call for this summer.
Something that really worked was the one-on-one mentoring calls. That was the time that I most valued in this process and I think it was the same for the Fellows. All of the projects described above grew out of these calls in one form or another. It was also when I was able to provide the most value to the Fellows. They all were also very helpful to me.
Was This Perfect?
No.
Should I have done this and should I do something like this again? Yes. Motivate (Beta) and the other projects related to Mighty Purpose, are perfectly aligned with my purpose and the reason why I started this last November.
Did it cost me a lot to try living my purpose via this project? No. Though, if I had spent a few more bucks it would have been better for all of us. This is the point you should take away from this post. It hasn't cost any of the Fellows, or me, all that much to try something purposeful. Do it right, it shouldn't cost you too much either. Just try something small.
Another example for you to consider. Carl's full project will probably cost more than $30,000 to pull off. But, he has chunked this larger project into smaller pieces and he can start something for anywhere from $0 to $3,000, and investment of some time. You can, and should, do that too. Just try do do 1 cool thing. And, don't wait.
What's Next?
Some of you have already asked when the next Motivate experience will be. So let me bring you all up to speed.
I have been working on a web-based structured learning experience connected with one-on-one mentorship, and possibly including a social accountability aspect. I will either offer this experience for individuals here on Mighty Purpose or for the leaders of non-profits and other organizations through www.boardtest.org.
Now that I have catalogued what went well and what didn't with Motivate (Beta), I need to apply those lessons to this new experience. If I offer this outside of the context of an organization, like with this past Fellowship, then I need to connect these web-based lessons to tangible real world action. I also need to figure out a mechanism to help participants hold themselves accountable to participate in the experience.
But, I won't think about this too long. After all, we learn the most when we take action and pay attention while we do it.
Be well,
Sterling Lynk