Dibs on This One

Hi. Thanks for popping in! I'm excited. I started this blog today in order to manage a project based on an idea that's been entertaining and inspiring me for about 20 years. An idea with that kind of lasting power, in my mind, must be a big one. Cuz I'm a girl who has had an awful lot of ideas coming in and out in and out, all the time. Based on longevity and perseverance alone, I figure this one is true love, and it's mine. My big idea.

My big idea is to give away all of my other ideas, so they can perhaps do someone else some good. I'm referring to all these ideas I always seemed to be blessed/cursed with, no matter how unrelated they are to my life, my capabilities, my talents. Ideas that might really fly, if they could be taken up by someone with the right tools, or contacts...enough money, or time...proper knowledge or finances. More energy or more courage. Fewer debts or fewer fears. Someone who is waiting, ready. Bored, even. Whatever. I kinda want to do a Rodney Dangerfield thing here. You know, "Take my ideas, please."

I want to make it clear that I am pursuing this project with pure, honest intentions, but this is not an entirely altruistic undertaking, either. While there are no tangible profits to be gained, no products to advertise, etc., I do stand to gain something wonderful, something huge, via this project. I want to give away all these ideas so I can be rid of them. It's not that they're bad, but they do take up a lot of space in my psyche, you know?

So many ideas, lurking in the shadows, down the dark corridor under the sign that says:

"The Hall of No Return. For What May Never See the Light of Day."

Okay. That was a little dramatic. But I seriously believe everyone is connected and every action exists in a place and a way that matters somehow, to someone, and therefore, to others. It's difficult to believe all this, and then at the same time be blessed/cursed with ideas that just sit there, unable to connect anyone or exist in a place or a way that matters.

So, no, this project isn't selfless.
(It's not a cheap trick, either, but) I want you to want my ideas.

To finish up the background, my big idea started out as just some ideas, followed by a few failed attempts at putting my ideas into action. But I kept them nonetheless. It seemed like they were good ideas, just not good for me. Time and life marched on and the ideas kept coming. I kept notes and told a few people and heard a lot of, "You know what? That's a fantastic idea!" until one day many years ago, I said to my husband, "What the hell am I ever going to do with all these ideas? I should just give them away."

At first that idea was more along the lines of a newspaper column that would feature my ideas. Then it became an idea for a whole book--wait, a series of books, a new one to be published every other year or so, like a published idea market. Several years later, it became an silly idea about getting on Oprah and having a contest for people to bid on the rights to my ideas and give the proceeds to charity. (Don't worry, that particular idea isn't indicative of the quality of the other ideas comprising this project. It's just that I'm honest about my Oprah dreams.)

Years later it became an idea about a website, where people would try to win chances to snap up my ideas with essay contests about what they would do with them. Then along came blogs, and now a few years later, I've started one today, after looking into a site called 52 Projects where plenty of productive, inspired people frequent. I saw a link there, that asked What's Your Project? and as I tried to write a few words on this big idea of mine, I thought, "Geez. I really should have my own blog. Like the 52 Projects author, Jeffrey Yamaguchi, did. A space where these ideas could be posted and shared for free, and just maybe acted upon by someone who needs an idea such as one of mine." I have long thought-talks with myself like that.

Free blog + free ideas = freeing storage space in Faith's mind. Plus maybe something awesome for someone else who connects with one idea, and makes it matter in their life, in the world.

Post number 2 will offer the first I decided to share.

P.S. I was thinking, people could read this blog not only for ideas they can use, but to follow up on what other people do with ideas. So, if you decide to take an idea, would you mind commenting on that, perhaps telling us a bit about how you'll proceed or why you're inspired? That would be cool--open adoptions for these ideas--wouldn't it?