The Story So Far
Catching up before Season 2
Everyone starts from zero, right?
That’s the deal … share your ‘thing’ with a new crowd and you start again. That’s scary … or thrilling. Or both. We started ‘Encourage Meant’ in November last year. It was thrilling … a gorgeous space here in Substack, a community of creative souls … mm, thrilling but …
We published a couple of posts, quietly, no e-mails … just testing the water, seeing where the ripples went.
16 November, [deep breath], press SEND to 62 curious souls (thank you, thank you for being there … as the post said ‘even encouragers need encouragement’).
Here we are, 9 months on … what have we got to show for it?
We thought it might be time to remind ourselves.
The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Douglas Adams
In The Beginning, there was a manifesto.
Ten simple reminders to us about the way we want to live:
In 2020, we asked some folk to write about the values … pick a value, any value, say what you see feel:
9. Be Generous
Generosity is at the heart of the Encouragement Manifesto, beautifully echoed back to us as people agreed to write fabulous pieces for us.
With all that generosity offered to us, we thought it would be good to reciprocate, so in 2021 we shared words of encouragement for 365 days:
The Gift of Encouragement
In 2021, I created a little side project ‘Every Day Encouragement’ - something encouraging - a few words, a quote, a celebration of something inspiring - every day for 365 days.
It was amazing - slightly mind-blowing - to find out just how many people needed those simple acts of encouragement. It made us think; maybe specific people need some specific encouragement.
Hey, we’ve got time, energy, experience, and the inclination … maybe WE could do some encouraging.
We put the call out … if anyone needs some encouragement, book a session.
What should we call them, Mrs Feasts?
What about The Encouragement Sessions, Mr Fables?
We have offered a LOT of encouragement in the past couple of years. Over 150 Zoom calls (and a handful of face-to-face conversations), all free at the point of use. It has been our chance to sprinkle some enthusiasm over folk when they need it most.
Encouragement is a Superpower, pass it on
People need a boost, fact - do you?
Can you help us by spreading the word? Can we help you … why not book a session?
You Might Have Missed
We wrote a couple of ‘Lessons Learned’ articles to make it easier to pass them on:
10 things we learned from over 150 Encouragement Sessions
9 People + 9 Encouragement Sessions = 9 Lessons
(go on, do pass them on to folk who need to see them … it can be your kindness or encouragement, your chance to be the pebble in the pond)
PS … there are 455 of you kind souls peeking in now. Amazing!
Fabulous to read about your journey and your successes! I think your manifesto is pure joy!
I sent to 60 odd people today. Numbers huh?!