the sticky note project
I admit, this one is a little silly, but it brings me so much joy.
About 4 years ago, I attended a guild board meeting at the public library, something I went to about once or twice a month. The room we use has chairs stacked along the wall, so we have to set up tables, unstack chairs, then redo it all before leaving. On this particular day, we arranged tables and chairs, and when I went to sit in my chair, I found a yellow sticky note in the chair with a handwritten note: You are very important, and the universe needs you.
I can't even explain the feeling seeing this note... I wasn't in a particularly rough place, but it just felt like a little boost, a little reminder that we are enough, even when we don't feel like it. The surprise and feeling of that note stuck with a long time.
Flash forward to current times - I've been working through a lot of my personal baggage, which seems to surface at an alarming rate when you put your entire well-being on the line to build a business. Most days I don't feel like enough. I feel like I'll never make it. I feel like I'm a burden to those around me that hold me up when I feel like I'm failing. The thing is, you don't have to be building a business to feel this way... we all have moments of feeling this way.
One day I wrote down some things I needed to tell myself... I wrote them on a sticky note and put it on my work bench where I'd see it every time I looked up. I am enough. I am loved.
By chance I spent some time with a new customer that day that needed to hear the same things. And then came this idea... how great would it be to get these little reminders when we least expect it?
I decided to have custom sticky notes printed so that I could leave them in random places - the bookstore, the grocery store, with a customer's sewing machine, on a car windshield, whatever called to me. I played around with so many ideas, but for the first round, settled for the things I needed to hear at this time. So here's my first batch of sticky notes that I ordered from VistaPrint:
I was shocked to find that it's very cheap to have sticky notes printed (it cost me about $26 including shipping for 10 sets of 50 sticky notes). The thing is, money is tight right now and this felt very frivolous, but that all the more reason to do it. Sometimes I think putting more love in the world in spite of lack of funds has special magic to it... like tipping an exceptional food server when money is extra tight. It's energy. It changes things for both parties.
So what's the plan?
Well, I just made a new Instagram page, where I think this will live. I'd like to not just post pics of sticky notes in various places occasionally, and I'd love for others to pose them when they find them, but I'd also like to post photos, quotes, anything that inspires me that I feel could inspire someone else.
I'd like to keep a budget to add a variety of sticky notes over time. I already have a running list of ideas.
I'd also like to offer anyone else to participate if you feel compelled to put more love in the world. I'll add links and details on getting your own sticky notes printed at a later time, but if you are interested, shoot me an email!
