Jenny Graham
“I love you,
I’m sorry,
Please forgive me,
Thank you.”Ho’oponopono is a Hawaiian healing mantra. There is much history behind it. Like anything, gravitate to what feels right. I was drawn to the simple, beautiful nature of how it relates to a release of the past. When we acknowledge, forgive, and listen to our intuition we are present to receive.
Links like this and that offer more information. And, I am reminded of this gem, too.
Photo Credit: Jenny Graham
A snapshot plus a life story wrapped up into one daily dose. Sure does sum up the beginning of JBD. This blog’s three year anniversary rolled into town while I was in Santa Fe on yet another celebrate-your-existence June vacation. I posted a little bit here. Let’s just say there’s a true tale for every polka dot on this skirt and then some. I’ve been working on a larger project whenever I feel especially inspired and whenever I can stick to a serious early morning schedule. But, I’ve thinking of you, JBD’ers. I say this often: life keeps happening. Life.keeps.happening. Put your fine self in the center of now. It is simple. It is all we have, all of us. By writing to you I am reminded of my own advice. Thank you for being you.
My Twitter feed preaches empathy, curiosity, adventure. Being curious, connecting with others (people of all walks of this life) and maintaining boundless adventure all contribute to the notion of a beginner’s mindset. In a way, each pathway keeps the heartbeat of this approach alive. Published in February, the essay below caught my eye earlier today. It’s a true secret of innovation.
It’s tempting to think of innovation as a rare skill belonging to a specific class of people—the visionaries, the creatives, the rule-breakers. But actually, it’s a muscle that we’re all naturally equipped with. We just need to get in the habit of using it.
At Warby Parker, we encourage employees to approach the world with a beginner’s mindset (it’s a Buddhist concept). This means banishing preconceptions and embracing curiosity. Experts have ready-made solutions; beginners have questions that may ultimately lead to better, newer solutions.
Because many of us spend a good portion of our lives working towards some form of expertise, it can feel counterintuitive to “think like a beginner”. If you do have expertise, there are ways to give yourself a fresh perspective: surround yourself with non-experts, interview first-time customers, shop your own website. Hire whip-smart people from outside of your industry.
Creating a habit of innovation in employees comes down to one simple act: asking for it. Constantly. We ask employees to submit a weekly “innovation idea” regarding absolutely anything, from product to office space. When employees know they’ll be asked for a new idea every week, the habit of generating ideas becomes ingrained.
Another key to generating innovation is to value innovation. It sounds obvious, but look at it this way: if we collected ideas but never implemented them, it would prove to employees that we don’t actually value their creative energies. Instead, we give real weight to these ideas and put resources behind them. Our Annual Report was initially the result of a junior designer proposing that idea. We’ve pursued big things— new products and collaborations— as a result of employee ideas. And we’ve also pursued small ideas, like one team member’s request to install an office ping-pong table.
Speaking of ping-pong, it’s crucial to create a physical environment that encourages people from different departments to collide. By now, the sight of a ping-pong table (or foosball, air hockey—insert table sport of your choice) at a start-up is a cliché. But it’s a useful cliché. The Warby Parker ping-pong table is one of the few places where a copywriter will naturally spend twenty intense minutes with a Front End Developer. Games are a bonding experience.
Be deliberate about creating moments for people of different departments to learn from one another. We schedule “formally informal” Demo Days where each department can show off the coolest stuff they’re working on and answer questions from coworkers. (Formal in the sense that we schedule them months in advance and prepare intensively; informal in that we also serve tacos.) We host Hackathons that include employees from the whole company, not just the tech-centric teams. And ping-pong tournaments. And Happy Hours. The list goes on.
Another aspect of innovation is learning. Humans are naturally curious—anyone who’s spent time with a toddler knows that a hunger to figure things out is a primal motivating force. Learning also leads to ideation: the more you know, the more you imagine. We’ve institutionalized learning in a few ways— by creating employee book clubs and establishing Warby Parker Academy, a program that offers free workshops on everything from frame design to public speaking to retail real estate to fantasy football. Learning naturally leads to cross-pollination and ideation. Ideation can lead to action. Action is how innovation comes to life.
Along with urging employees to think big, we give them the tools to jump in and execute ideas, starting with baby steps and prototypes to get the ball rolling. (“Take action” is one of our core values.) At the end of the day, innovation is part inspiration and part discipline.
We were incredibly excited to be named this year’s Most Innovative Company in the pages of Fast Company. What’s even more exciting? The fact that anyone can use these tools in pursuit of the new.
The Secret to Innovation essay via LinkedIn
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Crack into your day like none other. Treat it like a weekend, a birthday, a new habit. Because gosh darn it, people, today is brand new. Even if you must show up to an office or take care of kids or pay your bills, you still get today to live. Call someone who makes you laugh out loud, sign up for that class you keep thinking of, savor a cup of coffee five minutes longer. Book the ticket, paint the picture, say yes to love. Whatever it is, big or small, do it. Do it for you and you’ll raise a wave of good wonder for all of the rest of us.
I’m loving this pineapple print as much as I enjoyed reading these links. Happy clicking…
An all rosé wine festival is coming to Los Angeles? Um, yes please.
15 words you should eliminate from your vocabulary to sound smarter. If you want to sound smarter. If you don’t, you literally always just really shouldn’t read this link.
Rock star, TED speaker, and crowdfunding pioneer Amanda Palmer wrote a rad book, The Art of Asking. I read it and couldn’t stop telling anyone in my path to get their eyes on it. As Jenny Lawson said: “This is the kind of book that makes you want to call the author up at midnight to whisper, ‘My God, I thought I was the only one.'”
XOXO. Kisses and hugs. But also: a code to get you 20% off everything at Anthropologie for a limited time. Watercolor silk top anyone?
Each moment we get on this planet, in the bodies we’ve got, is a gift. Today, on my trip around the sun, I want to give something to you, a re-gift if you will.
My brother’s fiance shared The Invitation with me during a time of change, growth and a welcoming in of a new version of myself. Over the years I’ve passed it along to nearest and dearest pals and I just think it is full of beauty. I hope you enjoy this gift.
P.S. Celebrate and rock out, always.
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
Poem: The Invitation by Oriah // Photo: Jenny Graham
“Love makes no conditions, no ifs, no buts. Love never says, ‘Fulfill these requirements, then I will love you.’ Love is like breathing: when it happens you are simply love. It does not matter who comes close to you, the sinner or the saint. Whosoever comes close to you starts feeling the vibe of love, is rejoiced. Love is unconditional giving…”– Osho
Photo by Charcoal Alley