Last night I opened up a notebook I hadn’t opened in over a year. I have ton’s of notebooks, most unfinished/unused, filled with a variety of notes for projects, stories and ideas I’ve been working on. I’m starting a mind dump routine at night so I pulled out a half used Moleskine and began.
As I started flipping through the pages I was rewarded with all my ideas from the past. The good and the bad. But it was amazing to be reading myself from the past. As I was flipping through I found my initial notes about Mindsoak, when the idea came alive in my head. At the time I just jotted it down and moved on. I had too much on my plate at the time. But as soon as my plate cleared up and I felt rested enough to start another project, I found myself coming back to the idea of starting Mindsoak.
Anyway, here are my initial notes from June 23, 2014:
I find myself imaging where the author is when she is writing the article. What her mood is. What time of day she is writing. And what kind of coffee she is drinking.
I want to feel connected to the writer, more than just through their written words of an article or blog post. I want to hear her story. The stories of when they feel most alive. The stories of their creative space. Their greatest joys and their greatest challenges. We need to know what makes them human.
That’s what Mindsoak would be. The stories behind the writers.
So sit back, listen to their stories and let your mind soak.
I wish I could remember the author and article which led me down this path of thinking. Why did I want to learn more about her? Just because of her words? Did the article impact me that much? It must have, but I have no recollection. I obviously wanted to connect on some level with her as a human being. I wanted to see how her words fit in to the fabric that was her life.
Since I left the piece unedited and it was scribbled notes, it’s pretty funny to see how I changed from a singular author (she/her) to all potential authors (they/them). I guess Mindsoak wouldn’t be that interesting if it only revolved around one person. (Whoa…wait a minute. That might be fascinating as a branch of Mindsoak…to check in with the same person for a specific period of time to learn/enjoy/struggle with them on their journey. Hmmm….come here Moleskine….I need to write that down.)
I also love how I started with the idea of writers of articles. Again, it must have been someone fascinating I was reading. But now Mindsoak is simply anyone I find fascinating. From blogs, to articles, to Twitter, to my cousin’s friends I meet at his wedding, to someone down the street.
I also cringed at the “soaking of the mind” analogy. I chuckled at myself that I would use something so sappy. “Oh what a sap I was back then,” I thought. And then I realized I basically use the same sentiment on my About page. I’m sappy…what can I say?
The moral of the story is, I don’t know, I guess there isn’t one. Wait, yes there is. Journal. Like mad. And all you men out there (yes I’m being sexist) who are rolling their eyes about journaling…I’m not talking “Dear Diary”. I’m talking about migration of thought in to action. Just getting the idea down on paper keeps it brewing in your head. You work on it while not even focusing on it. Your subconscious starts to fill in the gaps.
So give it a try. And maybe you too can eventually make fun of your past self.
Bonus time. My first idea for a logo. I’m an unapologetic comic book geek, so everything starts with a word balloon:
