It has occurred to me that my little misfit looks as if he is trying to stir up trouble. Some may even be alarmed about his (or her…the misfit is gender-less) big green gun. So, what the hell was I thinking with this little fellow?
Well for starters I stole it from a poster I saw of a gorilla holding a gun and underneath there was a caption that read…”arm the animals.” I thought hey that’s cool. So I took the image, traced its outline and started playing with it using my handy dandy Ipad drawing app and, voila!, the revolutionary misfit was born!
First off, let’s get something straight. I am a completely nonviolent person. I don’t even own a gun. And, no, I am not advocating a violent overthrow of the establishment, or anything like that.
However, I am advocating revolution. And the gorilla represents the type of warfare that revolutionaries engage in against more powerful adversaries. So having the misfit somewhat resemble a combat ready gorilla is no mistake. But the revolution that the site advocates is one that takes place in the battlefield of the mind.
Revolutionary misfit proposes a revolutionary idea. And that is the idea of prioritizing impact over interest. You see, we tend to live our lives as if the only thing that matters is what interests us. I’ll give you an example. Yesterday I was eating in Subway (we actually have one here in Perez Zeledon!). There were two kids outside, I believe brother and sister. They were dirty and they looked hungry. I was busily downing my tuna burrito and reading the paper. I noticed them, but I just kept on doing my thing…the thing I was interested in. I could have made an impact. I could have bought those kids a sandwich. But I didn’t.
So, you see I am advocating something that I myself am a long way from perfecting. This site is about a journey I would like to take along with this soon-to-be-formed tribe in doing just that…perfecting the art of impact mindfulness. Caring enough (giving a shit) to put down the damn paper, forget my own stomach, and feed a hungry kid. But in order to do things like that I have to think in a new way. I need a new set of eyes and ears. Ones that are in tune with how the universe is calling me to action.
This site is about a journey I would like to take along with this soon-to-be-formed tribe in doing just that…perfecting the art of impact mindfulness.
We miss too many opportunities to make an impact because they just aren’t in line with our interests. Our lives become so much about what it is that interests us that we become apathetic to everything else that is going on around us. But people are hurting, the planet is wounded and losing blood, and we just keep our heads bowed to the thing that captures our immediate attention.
The misfit is intended to shake things up a bit…maybe even have a little shock value. It’s suppose to be edgy…not necessarily nice. In fact, a lot of what I write is not that nice. I don’t write positive thinking stuff that encourages connection-age lifestyle design. Those sites are great and I follow many of them, but this one is not about that stuff. My aim is for this concept of impact mindfulness to attract a small token of your coveted interest and over time that perhaps can grow into a full-scale revolution.
The misfit is intended to shake things up a bit…maybe even have a little shock value. It’s suppose to be edgy…not necessarily nice.
I believe it is what the world needs.
By the way, the colors stand for people (red), planet (green) and the universe (blue), of course. Notice that the gun is green…it shoots sustainable bullets. They don’t kill or maim, they are regenerative bullets…life giving bullets.
Sound nuts?…it is…join the revolution. The misfit needs YOU!
[…] Impact over Interest – This idea penetrates to the heart of what impact mindfulness is about, as well as why it is different. The other sites place the priority on interest. That is, figuring out what you are interested in and creating a life around it. That’s great. However, when we place priority on interest, we tend to live our lives ensconced inside our compact interest bubbles. Anything on the outside escapes our notice. The idea being that there is simply too much noise to allow anything and everything to penetrate the membrane. And the harder we work to keep the noise out, the thicker the membrane becomes. Impact mindfulness suggests breaking the bubble and being open to all universal calls for impact. That is the essence…prioritizing impact, even when doing so is outside our immediate interest. […]