Happy 30th Birthday to me!
A year ago today ( the 17th of November), I resolved that I wanted to go into my 30′s knowing what I wanted to do the rest of my life.
That is exactly what happened, through several round-about ways. Many times I operated unconsciously toward that goal. Some times I was reminded of it more consciously. More often than not, I acted out of a desire to not let another year go by without knowing exactly where I was headed. The State of the Spark, and the various projects surrounding it, is the result of that direction.
I wanted total clarity and direction, and that is just what I have found.
We could spend this time together talking about how vision and goal-setting leads the day. This is true, and very important.
Instead, I want to bring your attention to just WHAT that vision is all about; community and relationships.
For my birthday, I usually have quiet times where I get away alone and just plan out my next year. (While other people wait until December to do their planning, I do mine in November.)
This year, however, I was fortunate to get together with my friends for a hilarious night of hanging out, laughing, and talking about my life direction. (Tweet @jrodbennett and @jnorthington, great guys!)
Jared asked me at some point in the conversation, “Grant, so tell me about your 30′s. What is the vision?”
Vision of What?
First, let me digress for a moment and say that I am beginning to believe more and more that the vision we need to have, or start with at the very least, is not a vision of ‘where’ or ‘what’. I think that the vision we need to have is a vision for ‘who’. Who we are. Who we want to be. Who we should be to best serve and spark our family and friends.
It has been said that “without vision the people perish.” More than a vision for the future events, I think that vision needs to be a vision for how we will respond to future events; who we will be in those moments.
This is huge. Make a note, Sparked Citizen.
Back to the Question, Nieddu!
I was excited to respond to Jared with the vision for igniting my community, starting with my friends and family.
That, after all, is the goal of The State of the Spark;
to create an online community to motivate and inspire, activate and equip you to spark, ignite, and launch your offline community; to have a global community dedicated to cultivating powerful local communities.
My goal for my 30′s is vast, but I will summarize by saying that focusing on powerful, ignited relationships was the center of it. Read more about the TLE and my mission for the next 3 years to see my philosophy on launching from success to significance. Seriously, read them, like, now.(Total Life Experience and Mission.)
But, again, not to avoid the question, here are some highlights for the general direction of my 30′s:
- Create powerful tools through SotS to accomplish the mission
- Write a book titled “My First Quarter” covering what I have learned in my first 30 years on the earth
- Spark 5 businesses in my local community to Success, then Significance in the next 6 mo.
- Spark 1 person in every county in my state to Success, then Significance in the next 1.5 years
- Spark 1 person in every country in the next 3 years to Success, then Significance.
- Launch websites for 100 local-community-oriented non-profits over the next 3 years. (If that’s you, click here for Sparking Social Web Development.)
Throw in the things that have been added to Sparked Labs:
- The Principles in the Raw (coming soon)
- The Autograph/Lifeline project
- Various Social Experiments (also coming soon)
- Sustainable Living Modeling, and more.
You can always learn out more by regularly checking Sparked Labs, following the State of the Spark RSS feed, or joining the newsletter.
So, finally, I wanted to thank the great people at my birthday dinner for making it amazing. Zach Schlobaum, Jared Bennet, Jason & Christi Northington, Chalis Stefani, Michelle Stefani, Roweena Lovvorn, and Elizabeth Carpenter. Phone calls from my family were awesome. The matcha cookies from Diana at work were AMAZING. Throw in the Facebook love I got from 63+ of you, and my birthday was more than spectacular.
Thank you again. I look forward to my 30′s, and this particular year of sparking and igniting. Thanks for joinging the cause, and I look forward to hearing from you soon!
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Photo by Arkadiusz Benedykt
