“Have you ever seen the Ted Talk ‘The Shared Experience of Absurdity‘?” I ask Mario as we sit in the Santa Barbara airport waiting for our flight. “No I haven’t…” he says shaking his head. “Oh my gosh!!!” My eyes light up, I whip out my iPhone, and swipe to the Ted App. “We’ve got 20 minutes so we’ve got to watch this -it’s my absolute favorite!” We huddle together over my small screen and laugh and grin as Charlie Todd makes a case for why we should make time to play as adults, and do  things that create small, surprising, and delightful moments for others.

Revisiting that energizing talk put me in a thoughtful mood. I realized, that’s exactly the kind of impact I want to have in my life and in my career. How can I create unforgettable experiences that surprise and delight? How can I disrupt your routine and make you witness something extraordinary? What can I create that sparks genuine human connection between people? 

Today, I feed this passion by volunteering at Make a Wish Foundation, watching ‘Pay it Forward‘ 100 times, or stalking Improv Everywhere events. Ultimately though, I need to be accomplishing these things as my full-time occupation and on a very grand scale. Yet ironically, I’ve answered the “Why” before the “What” and “How”. I recognize the “What” when I see it — the Coca-Cola Happiness Campaign, Banksy, Airbnb, the Inside Out Project. But how can I jump into one of these stirring, colorful, lives-changing ventures before they happen? What do they look like when they’re just starting out?

The purpose of this blog is to help me hone in on the “What” and “How.” By collecting ideas of things that inspire me, I’ll be actively chipping away at that block of wood that will one day become a beautiful creation. This is my collection house where I hope to identify patterns in the things that inspire me and people that I want to meet and emulate. Like a venture capitalist who spots a good deal in a sea of noise, I want to have an equally keen sense for a lives-changing company or inspiration-evoking project.

I’ll have a very high bar for content to live here, so I bet you’ll enjoy what I’ve curated. I implore you to help me on my quest; if you see a post that reminds you of some other inspiring project/person/phenomena, forward it or share it in the comment box!

To focus us both, here’s some words I might use to describe what I’m looking for: whimsical, playful, authentic, innocent, inspiring, moving, endearing, empowering, generous, pay it forward, amazing, entrepreneurial, ingenious, beautiful, visual, interactive, storytelling.

I’m excited to publicly commit to this journey. The search will be fulfilling and I look forward to all the “aha’s” ahead of me.

xxx Adelle