In January, I first posted my #sprintypants project idea. This began as an attempt to turn the selfish goal of beating my 100m personal best (which itself appeared out of a random act of kindness towards me from a generous stranger called Coxy) into something that might instead help others. I thought I’d play around a bit by watching how the story unfolded, and whether it changed, thrived or died.
Well, the story has evolved. Into a story of hope, self-discovery, murder, betrayal and rebirth. This is where it’s gone…
HOPE: Whizz Kidz, the disabled children’s charity, got back in touch and told me that they had identified 3 disabled children who are potentially interested in getting actively involved in an initiative. In my case it would be me helping them organise an athletic event called a ‘Helptathlon’, to raise funds for their own and each others’ causes, and gain enduring life skills and confidence along the way. Twitter even produced a couple of people interested in joining me in the mentoring. The way was open to charge ahead with this sprinty / coachy idea.
SELF-DISCOVERY: However, something didn’t feel right, which was sapping my enthusiasm. With the help of a reality check from the sort of person who can brutally provide them (someone no less than an “Ideas Gun“), I realised in horror that my inaugural project was already off-course.
In my experiments, what I have discovered I am aiming to do is:
A) Put helping others at the centre of the universe, and
B) Remove the money motivation from the centre of the universe, preferably teleported into deep space.
The Helptathlon idea tried hard, but failed to do either of these. There was no escaping that it was a fundraising idea, where I would ultimately ask people to put their hands in their pockets…just like I used to in my old career (but a more charitable cause). Too close to home, not adventurous enough.
MURDER & BETRAYAL: So I became the Bad Guy in my own story: I made a painful call to Whizz Kidz and said that I wouldn’t be going ahead with the idea. Selfish? It certainly felt so, but that’s a question for another post (at least we had ensured that those 3 kids’ expectations had at no point been raised).
REBIRTH: Now that I am clearer on what I want to get out of my efforts, I am developing several new ideas, that are inadvertant products of the above process. They still (currently) link into the original sprintypants thing, which persists in being an unexpected source of inspiration. Will any survive?
So that’s what is happening to Project Sprintypants. Watching an idea unfold in real time is rarely as nail-biting as an episode of 24. I’ll either need to add in some sort of nuclear threat to LA, or just continue to be patient and let it evolve.
In the meantime, I’ll just keep sprintin’.
P.S. New video being posted on Friday, following a recent time trial…
