And now a word about failure.

Officially we are in the middle of summer, half-way there and half-way back.

The good intentions of June have passed thru the murky waters of July and are now staring you in the face with the heat of August…. and there is a list of things to be done by September too!

 

It isn’t what you planned in your head, when you started this year or even this summer. The truth is life happens.

 

But that doesn’t mean you failed or are a failure. You adjust and attack again or adjust and simply come away with a different viewpoint.

 

Failure doesn’t define us, it strengthens us.

 

If you haven’t gotten your Moving Difference hours done yet, take a breath. You got time and you got this…

 

Even a minute, even just one hour of Moving Difference is something to be proud of.

 

Don’t let the doubt of failure be your hallmark.

 

Have the courage on the path that you have set out for yourself. You got this!

 

 

It is Saturday morning at 12:20 am – Good Morning!

By the light of the crickets, I write this entry to you.

I am so proud of Moving Difference, its vision was a 1000 hours over a summer, we did 5700+ the first three weeks.

After a few hours here tonight, I can tell you the number has gone up.

Moving Difference is now 6421 hours completed as a Moving Difference.

There are still a few hundred emails to open but we will get there and we will get them logged.

I wanted to share one email with you this early morning though. It is what this project is all about. I have tucked it below for your reading. I just want to say this about life, once you think you have seen it all, think again.

This world is a wonderful place.

The email:

“Dear Jeny,

The Moving Difference fever struck our house this week! I am reporting our total family hours for the week as 26 and 26 soccer balls donated to Orphans of War Campaign. We encouraged our children to join us in a few activities and for every hour they did, we told them we would purchase a soccer ball for charity. Jake and Stacy really thought it was cool, and we went to Academy last night to get the soccer balls. The kids were so excited they explained what they did to the clerk, who called the manager who give us the soccer balls at a discount. Then informed our children that for the rest of the summer, every hour they did on the Moving Difference project, he would purchased the soccer balls for them to ship to the charity. Needless to say our house is a buzz for next week, the kids have planned themselves into 40 hours!! I am sure that you will have a few more folks helping out in the days ahead – the kids are telling everybody!!

Thank you for this wonderful summer family project. ”

Pretty cool huh?

The First Week of Moving Difference

Today is a big day for Moving Difference, today it is a week old!!!

            It has been amazingly fast week!

            I crunched some fun numbers to share with you all about the first week.

            Here it goes –

            Emails received 18,685 – Emails replied 18,542

            Pints of blood donated across the nation – 348

            Hours spent picking up trash – 249

            Hours spent working in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter – 288

            And here is the best number of all –

1148 hours – the total number of hours that Moving Difference has completed across the world in its first week.

            Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

            The world might seem upside down but here we are, a Moving Difference, a week old, over a 1000 hours completed and the rest of the hot summer to go – time to redefine ourselves to bigger dreams!!!

            Moving Difference is now a goal of 10,000 hours by the end of the summer. One hour at a time getting out, moving and making a difference.

            We can do this!!

          We did a 1000 hours already!! By September 21, 10k in hours making a Moving Difference is going to be easy!! And that sunset on September 21 is going to be AMAZING!!

          So come on – Join in! Grab a friend and have a great summer!!

 

In the moment –

By all counts, Moving Difference is a working success. It is less than a week old, it is steady and strong and making the impact on the world.

            I have read a lot of emails over the last week, thousands actually. Every one excited to share, wanting to do something, or reporting what they have done. Each email is special and unique. From the guy that wrote to proudly report that he didn’t pass out when giving blood to the young woman in the different country asking if it was okay to do a Moving Difference inTurkeywith her friends. Amazing emails, simple and beautiful.

            To those of you still getting out there to do the Moving Difference or having a hard time selecting what to do, I firmly believe that you already know it in your heart.

Like Moving Difference for me, I really never thought “Hey I am going to put together Moving Difference and change the world.” What I thought was “Hey I am going to put together Moving Difference and do something besides complain about yet another hot ugly summer.”

Being a bit selfish in my thinking now looking back but I never thought it on such a huge scale that Moving Difference has grow to.

            Honestly I am glad that I didn’t think of it to the huge scale, because I probably won’t have done it. Hey! I am human – I would have worried, fretted and stall like everybody else.

            Now that Moving Difference is going and going to large numbers and going completely beyond what my little first thought was, well, it is a moment of awe.

            Sometimes you don’t get to choose the moment that takes your breath away, it chooses you.

So we are all on the same page –

            Moving Difference kicked off with a bang yesterday – 249 hours!

            This is incredible! Amazing and mind-blowing!!

            This is 249 hours of you, wonderful people stepping up and making a moving difference.

             Your time is a precious resource. Very precious.

            Moving Difference is the time of you, your friends & family, your neighbors and even your co-workers.

            I want to make sure that you know that I know it is all about each of you.

            I say you universally in the sense that you all are part of this world.

            This is your achievement, your sweat and your drive to make a difference.

             Moving Difference can’t be done without you.

               Moving Difference is your passion and the world’s benefit.

            I humbly submit that I am a small passenger on this journey, very small.  I am thankful that you all allow me to be part of this amazing journey called Moving Difference. I am grateful for the moments, the laughs, every email, every call and every moment that I spend working on it.

            With that I need to let you all know that Moving Difference did 178 hours today – bringing the grand total to 427 hours in two days – There are plenty of emails to read and post and it will happen. Going to let everybody know the hours total on a weekly basis now since there are just a lot of happy emails to read and process into numbers. But I will take care of that, you just keep being you and know that I am extremely thankful.

            Peace to All!!

First Sunset of Moving Difference

An idea that was first written on a burrito napkin has now become reality.

Today was the day that Moving Difference kicked off, the first day of summer and the first day of the simple concept of moving and making a difference.

There are hundreds of emails to go thru, people reporting their hours and people asking tons of questions – I promise I am going to read them all and report the hours on the Facebook site and of course here.

83.33 people (friends and family) doing 12 hours over a summer, 1000 hours was all I was hoping for. Now I am thinking I won’t be surprised if Moving Difference hits 10k in hours from all over the world at the end of the summer.  

Just today alone – I have emails reports in of over 55 hours of Moving Difference achieved inAustin,Texas– that is pretty amazing and some other good things happening too.

All together for the entire project across the world, it is about 154 hours of Moving Difference right now*** – and that all the read emails/voice messages so far – I still have about 200 emails to look at yet tonight and I am sure the total number is going up! That is the FIRST DAY !!

*** – Writer’s note – it took until roughly past 3a.m., but all emails were read and reported – Total number was 249 hours of Moving Difference..on its first day.

I am impressed! I am shocked! I am grateful! I even cried tears of joy!

Amongst the busy first day of Moving Difference, I did my first hour of Moving Difference. Making balloon animals at a local children’s hospital. My giraffes didn’t look right and my dogs were a bit too big but the kids had fun being critics of the unique world that is the art of balloon animals. Nothing makes you humble like a kid laughing at your attempts to make a poodle and it comes out looking like a pink digestion track with legs. Hey it is my first public attempt at balloon animaling… laughter is good medicine for those kids even though my pride was hurt!! *sniff sniff – smile*

I am still so thankful for the people doing this project – this is a great start!

I want you to know that Moving Difference is because of some really great people – you and your friends & family. It is amazing and wonderful to think that there are people like you out there.

This is the first of one many sunsets on this project

I’m looking forward to the big sunset on September 21, when no matter where in the world we live we stop and all watch that sunset together and enjoy an amazing summer of moving and making a difference together!!

I can’t say it enough – thank you.

I really thank you all for being part of Moving Difference. I am looking forward to the rest of the summer and looking forward to having more people join in this really amazing movement of moving and making a difference.

From the bottom of my heart – thank you for being amazing people! Thank you for being a Moving Difference.

All my respect and love,

Jeny