You guys,
What if I recorded 100 consecutive days of lip sync videos and shared them on YouTube?
It started as a fleeting thought, just a question in my mind. It was a Silly Epiphany.Â
Silly Epiphanies are those ideas you have that are so brilliant, so intoxicating, so hair-raising… to no one else but you. You say the idea out loud to someone and get a blank stare or a weird look.
Silly Epiphanies are unfairly characterized as frivolous and unimportant. They might even be cause for ridicule. They tend to come to you in the form of a question. What if I chopped off all my hair into a pixie cut? Your excitement about the thing is quickly overtaken by your rational brain. That’s a waste of time, or, What will people think? And so your Silly Epiphany is forgotten, wedged somewhere in the back of your brain like that can of expired vegetable soup in your kitchen pantry.
I suppressed the lip sync idea, but just in case, started a list of potential songs. Then I wrote down timestamps. Which section of the song would I lip sync? There would be themed weeks, of course. A Disney week for sure. Which seven Disney songs would I choose?Â
Until finally, weeks later, I succumbed to my Silly Epiphany. I would record 100 days of lip sync and share each video on YouTube.Â
When you say yes to your Silly Epiphanies and follow through on your brilliant ideas, you reconnect with your childlike joy. Then you start to notice more of your Silly Epiphanies. They were there all along!Â
What if we turned our guest bedroom into a Christmas-themed room ALL YEAR ROUND?
That’s silly. Nobody does that. What will my family think when they visit in the Spring?? …But wait, do I actually care?? No! This is an awesome idea! If other people don’t love it I don’t care, because I love it.Â
The time between having a Silly Epiphany and taking action lessens each time because instead of worrying about what other people will think, I think about how it will make me feel. 100 days of lip sync? ENERGIZED. A Christmas-themed bedroom? JOLLY. Chopping off my hair to hopefully look like Natalie Portman and not my mother-in-law? THRILLING.Â
Not too much came of my 100 days of lip sync. I didn’t grow my audience or make any money.
But it’s my funnest fact. It’s part of what makes me me. And when Sam and I first met and he Googled me, he tumbled down my 100-day rabbit hole and was attracted to my grit and commitment.
Habitually saying yes to Silly Epiphanies takes the pressure off our ideas. They don’t need to be life-changing or earth-shattering. They just need to make you feel like when you were a kid, and you arrived at the family reunion, walked into the backyard, and saw an INGROUND POOL. You didn’t think, Oh, I don’t want to get wet. You didn’t wonder, Will other people get in the pool? You made a beeline for that beautiful water playground and jumped in as fast as your mom said okay.
When you have a Silly Epiphany, think of your 8-year-old self. See the world again through her eyes.
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Until next week,
Charlie
Where is the link to said youtube