Anyone care to guess why I might be feeling a wee bit overwhelmed today?

Photo of my desk covered in clutter

Yes, my monitor sits on an old Webster’s Dictionary.

While I was blissfully chatting up like-minded people and crafting a nonconventional life for myself at World Domination Summit last weekend, artifacts, most representing to-do’s, have steadily accumulated on my desk, visual cues that I’ve got a crap-ton of piddly-ass shit to do. It’s not that everything is important; in fact very few things are meaningful “big rocks.” But I’m a girl who craves sparse minimalism and needs space, so this kind of visual clutter is overwhelming.

My post-conference modus operandi is to take the day after off to follow up with people I’ve met, review my notes and set action items for myself. And, of course, the desk gets cleared. This system works for me and is one of the methods I use to prevent overwhelm after attending events.

Enter the monkey wrench.

As you’ve probably heard, Chris Guillebeau and the WDS team found that not only did they make money at this year’s conference they were approached by an anonymous donor, so they decided to combine the money and invest it in this year’s participants to the tune of $100 each. Yes, you read that correctly. WDS returned $100 to each of this year’s participants.

So today I find myself overwhelmed. I’m grateful for the faith the WDS team has in me. I’m thankful for the opportunity to do something exceptional with this seed money. I’m gobsmacked at the prospect of so very many options. And I’m terrified of doing the wrong thing.

This is what overwhelm looks like today:

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3 Responses

  1. I’m feeling mighty overwhelmed as well. I have my $100 and am using it to start a charity on a cause that really hits home with me. Lots of work to do! I don’t even know how to start a charity.

    • Please keep me updated about your new charity, Angela. My friend Noland Hoshino (@nolandhoshino) might be a valuable resource for you. Feel free to contact him.

  2. This is so awesome. I love Chris Guillebeau. I was witness to a project like this on a much smaller scale in a church once the pastor sent around the offering plate but it was full of twenties. He told everyone to take one and change the world. My friend who was in attendance that day traveled to Mexico (just across the border this was in Texas), bought dozens of handmade pieces of jewelry from child artisans on the street, and came back to the US, where he sold them for more than ten times what he’d paid. He donated the proceeds to an organization for street children in Mexico but was really inspired by how a little can become a lot. We were both teenagers at the time. How much more power and influence do grownups have?

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