WellGiving Weeknote #10
Not only have I hit double digits with my weeknotes (queue celebration), suddenly over the weekend the dust has settled and, following a pivotal week, the fog is beginning to clear.
When I started on this journey with Impact Central 10 weeks ago, I set one overall objective: to be able to clearly communicate the concept of WellGiving.
Off the back of the past week’s zoom sessions and a masterclass with James Poulter from Vixen Labs, I feel content. It hasn’t always been plain sailing and I do doubt myself a LOT (much to the frustration of my team) but after a week focussed on presenting, 30 second pitches and ultimately telling our stories ahead of the showcase I think i’ve undergone a huge boost in confidence over the weekend.
The session from James was fantastic and the use of User Stories (a core pillar of our own work at Green Gorilla Apps) and Think, Feel, Do when creating content made total sense. In addition, James showed a video by Gary Vaynerchuk titled ‘Document, Don’t Create’. I have followed Gary on and off since 2013 when I first listened to the audiobook of ‘Crush it!’. The message and concept is super simple and I have finally taken this to heart this weekend.
And so it started…with the simple act of creating a survey to gain insights. I wanted to understand current levels of physical activity as a result of Covid 19 and past experiences when raising funds for charities through fitness challenges. This survey had been on my todo list for too long!
I started out small, used google forms and sent it to my friends on Strava. Then i shared it with a small number of close business contacts who pointed out an embarrassing number of amendments needed. Finally I rolled it out on LinkedIn and Facebook. Today I have received over 100 responses and the insights and additional detail people have provided has been amazing.
If you want to help with the research, here is the link: https://forms.gle/RPgqQfgsSnkfZ19TA
This really got me thinking. As part of the survey, I asked:
- How important is regular exercise to you?
- How satisfied are you with your current exercise levels?
- What stops you from exercising?
Being totally honest I scored myself:
- 5 out of 5 for importance
- 1 out of 5 for satisfaction
What??? I’m trying to create a product that helps people to exercise regularly and improve their mental and physical health. Whilst it was based on my past experiences, I was not being congruent. This has to change!
I woke up on Saturday morning and realised it was 12 days until the Impact Central Showcase. I don’t want to stand up and tell my story and explain the impact and opportunity to do good without a recent example, so I decided to set myself a micro fitness challenge to show how WellGiving can work.
The simple rules I set myself for this challenge:
- The Goal is to complete an average of 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of physical activity per week, the minimum recommended by the World Health Organisation and NHS for basic mental and physical wellbeing
- I calculated this as 20 minutes per day. I am currently doing less than 30 minutes per week!
- AND to donate money to charity — I decided to support 2 x fantastic local charities Primrose Hospice and The Shakespeare Hospice — both of which have helped my family over the past few months with grief counselling
- The money will be funded by our family rude/swear/naughty box. We have a simple chalkboard and each mark is worth 50p. Over the past few months we have generated an embarrassing amount of money and always agreed that it should be donated to charity. So i suggested to the family that we use this pot of money and that they can all get involved in this challenge and choose their own charities.
- The charity elements provide the extra motivation I need when exercising to start, continue and finish.
- I also decided to ‘go public’ and share my goal by recording a simple explanatory video and sharing it on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter (gulp).
- I will track all exercise using FitBit and Strava and the WellGiving platform does the rest :-)
- I called it ‘The 12 days of WellGiving’
I have involved my wife and kids from the start and we have just completed a 3.5 hour walk. They have also helped me with filming and had starring roles in a short promo for the showcase too.
They even created this image below to share — they are now Social Media Managers apparently for getting me to use a hashtag #12daysofwellgiving and available for hire :-)
It’s an odd weeknote to write as it all seems to be about me and my weekend, but it has been a lot of fun. I’ve learning to trust myself, I love the concept of documenting the journey and day 3 looms tomorrow.
What could be your 12 days of…
Wish me luck!
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