Personal development lessons from the Boo Bash
I’m coming up on the one-year mark of leaving my corporate job and kicking off free agency. Every day since starting my consulting practice I’ve had a clear sense that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, even when the work or the business development are hard. My sense of well being has never been higher.
I have wondered if I could sustain this sense of well being if I were back in the middle of a big organization with huge projects riding on me.
Enter the Boo Bash, a school fundraiser that generated over $10,000 for my fifth-grade son’s class field trip, topline growth of about 15% over prior year. We had a 40-person planning committee leading the efforts of more than 200 onsite volunteers the night of – half of whom were pre-teens. We had a haunted house, games, food, spaghetti brains, crafts, and photo ops with realistic superheroes. We had no professional AV company or caterer. Let’s just say this had more moving parts than any big corporate event I’ve produced.
It often felt like a corporate initiative. I had a high-level goal and support from the top but still had to make the case for tactical support. We cast a wide net in terms of expertise and idea generation and got better results because of it. There was a social media calendar. The project provided stretch opportunities for everyone: my favorite was the corporate attorney who codesigned the Hospital of Horrors. He hadn’t led school projects before but said this experience gave him confidence to raise his hand again and stretch more – music to my ears.
I couldn’t sleep after the first meeting (I pump a lot of adrenaline when I lead a 40-person planning meeting), and I may have overengineered one or two things. And I may have snapped at a volunteer who wanted me to pop over to look at lighting plans when that was supposed to be someone else’s job (she has forgiven me). Everyone said the process was so well organized, though, and I felt great about that.
When the event was in full swing, I caught myself teetering between relief that we had pulled it off and dread of cleaning up. What a disservice to myself and my team if that had been all I experienced. The event was a time of revel and triumph. We were in the middle of one heck of a party, everyone on the team had their marching orders, and our guests were having fun.
That was my big pivot: I put myself right into that moment – 20 minutes after doors opened and 2 hours 40 minutes until they closed – and enjoyed it. Then I experienced every moment after that, helping people when I was needed, laughing out loud when I wasn’t, parenting every once in a while. I can’t wait to practice that active and liberating “Be Here Now” on my next big professional project. To feel the joy of the work in the moment and know that you can handle the next moment when it comes. I wish that for everyone.
The net proceeds from the Boo Bash will offset each fifth grader’s bill for a five-day trip to Eagle Bluff Nature Center by about $150. It’s a significant reduction, though given what we donate in time and goods plus the cost to attend, at best I’m breaking even.
It’s a good thing I loved working on it. Pressure or no, frustration or no, I loved it. I love orchestrating big groups and clearing hurdles. Helping people figure out hard stuff and then getting out of their way. Creating spaces for people to do their best work and for customers and little kids to have fun.
When I raise my hand to help next year, I’ll be doing it because I want to. That’s the other area of clarity I have achieved in the past year: almost every project I’ve taken on has been one I wanted to do, not out of a sense of obligation. I know I have a choice, and that I gravitate toward projects that feed my energy. I suspect that that mindset is a choice too, no matter where I work or for whom.
In short, thanks to the Boo Bash, I have confirmed that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, that I’m more effective experiencing each moment one at a time rather than anticipating countless variations of future moments, and that my instincts about projects and people are pretty decent. I wish the same for all of you!
