At times this read is going to sound gross but if you stay with it, by the end you will
totally get it.
Have you ever done something awesome? Something incredible? Gone for a run,
birthed a baby? Snuggled with a loved one? Something incredible where you wanted
to leave the texture, the smell, the residue of awesomeness on your body for a little
while longer?
We sense this already. It’s why we smell babies when we meet them. It’s just a
mixture of milk, barf, barf mixed with milk and other secretions but when it’s all
mixed together it becomes this incredible baby smell. You inherently like it and
want to have it around. Babies are miracles and miracles are awesome. This kind of
awesome is not something we want to wash off right away.
Here is another one: A make out session with someone who smells good. Yep, you’ve
been there, those radical love smells. When you wear their clothes and keep
showering to a minimum so you can keep the smell on you.
As humans we fundamentally get that there is value, major, life changing value in
“wearing” something for a little longer. Keeping those good smells, the connected to
awesome miracle residue, on you a little longer than the daily shower would permit.
Are you with me? There is something about those smells.
Now here comes the whole damn problem. The general pace of good ideas and I
mean cool ideas, life changing top 10 lists that come out every hour, flooding your
emails, your social media, your outlets for inspiration. It’s like a fucking pressure
wash on the hour ever hour all week long. That is too much, its too fast and nothing
sticks.
None of that good stuff has a chance to stay around. We need to be able to revel in it
a while. Revel in it like the smell of a lover, or the pride of the salty sweat you earned
after a run. Protect your time with awesomeness.
I don’t have a pig, but I hear that they “wallow.” They roll around in the mud and
make sure it is really on them and from what it seems they love it. This idea, this
idea that keeping good stuff around for longer, longer than the hourly hose down
would allow, seems to have tremendous value. So much so, it’s in our nature. The pig
understands it. Other paid professionals think we should slow it down too.
So…my nugget for you this week is to slow it down. Slow it way down. Remember
that awesome experience you had yesterday, that bump in with a friend and that
idea you shared? The one that seemed really brilliant and inspiring? It’s probably
been diluted in your mind and heart via the hourly power wash cycle of “new life
changing ideas”, our every-minute-on-the-minute turn over in headlines. Turn off
that cycle! Go back to the one that really spoke to you. Think about it. Let its smell
get on you. Be with it. Wallow in that one good idea for the rest of the week.
I am gnarly about protecting some quite wallow time each day. At least 5 days a
week. Early in the morning, when my son naps, or in the evening. Sometimes all
three. I find that time almost every day to wallow. It enriches my life.
The hourly pressure washing is leaving our skin irritated and raw, plus it’s stripping
the nutrients from our system. I am positive about this. Choose your game changing
idea and spend some time wallowing. Really go for it, protect that smell, that time to
incubate what matters to you. It’s an awesome thing and its awesomeness is
connected with our ability to absorb. Absorb this week.
People make ideas move, not the ideas themselves. Find some wallowing time.
Thanks for letting me get that on paper. I’ve been wallowing with this one.
Carry on in your Coconut Wireless Life – see you out there!
Aloha – Kim