Don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s launched: Announcing The 11 Project

I have a tendency to think that all things will universally take “a while”. When I launched Adventures in Well-Being, I knew that I was launching it with all the love and passion I’ve got, but that the clarity part would be forthcoming. What can I say? I think it’s important to just get stuff out there considering that most of us have a natural tendency to put off the big dreams, and I wanted a home for all the ideas I swim in every day- which means I had a heck of a lot of stuff I wanted to talk about. So at launch time it was still distilling- was the magazine an alternative to the “shoulding” health and personal growth publications out there? Yes. Was is strictly about health and clean livin’? No, actually.

I wanted to talk with people who were re-defining work, family, travel, health, happiness- the whole bit. Maybe those people are doctors or yoga teachers, but maybe they’re entrepreneurs or tech geniuses or non-profit founders- hell maybe they’re stay at home moms or artists or chefs. And then it hit me- I had been over-complicating my idea. I only wanted to talk to people who were re-defining what the good life meant regardless of what category the world had put them in. This magazine is an interview project, it turns out. Who knew.

It was like I knowingly launched with the equivalent of a murky jar of water, set it on a shelf assuming I would check back in a year to see the murk settled, and then was shocked to discover that the water was clear, with murk filtered to the bottom, within a month. I forget that sometimes “a while” can be a very short while.

So what will Adventures in Well-Being look like now that the murk has settled? We’ll still be a digital magazine, but in each issue our parameters will be very clear. We’ll find eleven people who are re-defining what the good life looks like and ask them all the same eleven questions. So bid a fond farewell to Adventures in Well-Being and get ready to send some lovin’ in the direction of The 11 Project. (The genius Reese Spykerman is busily transitioning the site, so expect some changes in the near future.)

Why bother with parameters at all?

I went to art school as an undergrad at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where they’re famous for a brutal freshman year. In RISD’s freshman foundation year everyone- regardless of what major they’re interested in having eventually- is put through the same paces. Those paces look something like putting a very tight vise on people’s projects and seeing what comes out. The result is that RISD turns out exceptional creative thinkers. I, for one, feel ridiculously blessed that I got to go there and came out of college with such a crucial and universally applicable life skill.

For example, a professor could give you a wide open parameter like “interpret a chair” and you could let your freak flag fly (which is tons of fun as we all know) and make a chair entirely out of sausage, or out of airplane parts, or find a chair on the curb and screw it into the ceiling. This is, clearly, fun. But it doesn’t make you a better thinker, just a thinker having some fun. Instead, an assignment that I had at RISD would involve the professor handing every student the exact same quantity of the exact same cardboard and saying, “Each of you make a chair using only this material- no glue, no fasteners, no staples, etc- and it has to support your body weight for five minutes. I don’t care what it looks like. I don’t care how you do it, just follow these parameters.” With an assignment like that the vise is on, and you have to become a creative thinker. (And yes I really had this assignment. Another classic in life drawing was to draw the figure using no lines or shading. I shit you not. But I digress…)

So I’ve become a fan of parameters. I find that with clear parameters things can get really juicy and a lot of unexpected a-ha’s come to the fore.

That said, it’s important not to let parameters become formulas. The professor did not give us the chair assignment and then hand us a blueprint for how to make the chair: “First you start with this triangular shape in the middle, then you move to the outer surface…” That truly squashes creativity. You’d be better off screwing chairs into ceilings. So I won’t robotically ask the eleven questions. I’m sure we’ll diverge in places and see what happens. That’s the fun part.

Why 11?

The practical reason: I wanted to ask enough questions that I felt like people could flesh out their world view instead of just giving a sound bite on one or two questions. One more than ten and one less than twelve just felt like a good number and it avoids easy references to either top ten lists (and David Letterman) or a dozen.

The personal reason: My son and I both have birthdays that are the 11th (and the flagship issue will come out on his fourth birthday) so it felt like a nice way to give a shout out to the little dude who is my favorite person on planet Earth.

The woo-woo reason: I didn’t actually know this when I chose it, but in talking with my friend Lissa Boles (aka The Soul Mapper) about it she told me that in astrology the 11th house is all about coordinated and conscious communal team efforts and in numerology it is all about powerfully bringing something forward through creative expression. And I dig it. Gotta love having friends in woo-woo places!

The first issue comes out 1/11/11 (What can I say- it seemed fortuitous.). These are the questions we’re chewing on for the flagship issue:

1. What is your work and what impact do you hope it will have?
2. Did you ever have a period in your life when you were following the status quo and what did that look like?
3. As someone who is living life on your own terms, what are your terms?
4. How did you come to those terms?
5. What’s something that changed everything for you?
6. What do you think the pursuit of happiness is all about?
7. What’s your idea of hell?
8. Do you long for something right now?
9. What’s your relationship to doubt?
10. In the moments when it’s been tough to go against the grain, is there a person or thought that inspired you to keep at it?
11. What do you think humanity needs most these days?

What are some of your answers to the questions? Give them a whirl in the comments section:

photo by greenchartreuse