Five Dollar Impact

The other day I found myself with a five dollar bill that turned up unexpectedly in one of my suit pockets. It was a little worn, a little dry cleaned but spendable none-the-less. I don't know about you but finding "free" money like that is always exhilarating as ideas of how to spend the unexpected bounty tend to flood my brain.

Hmmm beer. True five bucks only gets me one beer...but hmmm beer none-the-less.

I could go buy one of those super complicated fancysmancy drinks from....where else...Starbucks. Perhaps, but I get too nervous ordering anything other than the regular Grande Black four sugars and I usually screw up saying that in uber cool Starbucks-speak.

I could run over to Wendy's and buy four Junior Bacon Burgers. But then what might have happen to my finely chiseled machine I have been working so hard on as of late. Well, chiseled is a matter of opinion but it's my fantasy so hush up!

I could rent one really "old" movie from Blockbuster. Can anyone say boring!

Or I could go to the dollar movie and have just enough left over for a small popcorn...no drink. There has to be a super blockbuster I didn't see that has made it to the smallest most uncomfortable theater known to man right?

I could pay Zach his allowance for feeding the dog and picking up dog "presents." But hey he hasn't asked for this week's payment so why spoil a good thing.

All the choices. All the possibilities.

But as I contemplated what to do with my new found fortune I realized there wasn't anything that I wanted or needed. Not one thing that jumped out and screamed spend here! So I resigned to the fact the five dollars would likely get shoved back in my super secret compartment of my wallet to be reluctantly spent at the snack bar at the soccer game or thrown in the next time I met my pals for drinks. What a waste.

That's when it hit me. This five dollars doest not have my name on it...no sir, it has someone else's name on it.

I sat down and thought long and hard about who would be blown away by an unexpected bounty of five dollars. My brain was a tizzy with all the possibilities and I actually had fun imagining each individual smiling and laughing when they received an unexpected gift of five bucks "just because" from the Ripple Man.

Then as quickly as the images came they left, like water rushing to leave a drain, leaving only one person's face in my mind's eye. A casual business associate that has been working very hard on a startup venture and has been literally out of sight for months. I pulled up her contact information and got to work. In my note, I simply said:

"Even the greatest of genius must come up for daylight every now and then. Take this as your ticket to a piping hot cup of coffee and a few minutes of "me" time. Enjoy!"

Well you can imagine the reaction I received from this person. Overwhelmed and appreciative of the unexpected gesture would be an understatement. It was a Ripple that I was proud to create on her behalf and was a sound investment of five bucks if you ask me!

Do you have an extra couple of bucks floating around your wallet or purse right now that could make an impact on someone's day? Tell me, would you rather spend that on yourself or would you rather invest it in the relationship of someone you really want to get to know, or get to know better. I bet you, like me, will find the payoff by investing it in someone else is far more significant and rewarding.

Hope you will give it a try and come back and share your story.

Ripple On!!!

Steve

Create The Life You Want By Rippling - Lesson Six

This lesson is one of my favorite but seemingly the hardest for us as adults to adhere to.

Be a kid again and remember what it was like to have fun!

Now about now you might be saying to yourself "Okay Harper, the other rules make sense but what does being kid-like have to do with me creating the life that I want much less Rippling?"

It has everything to do with it!

Remember back to when you were a kid and you had your whole like in front of you? Remember thinking with wild amazement at what you might do in the future? For me I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be a professional soccer player. I wanted to travel to Mars. The whole world of possibilities were out there and the only limitation I had was my imagination.

Plus remember what it was like to meet new people when you were a kid? Everyone was a buddy or a pal. There were no judgments; those came later. There were no false pretenses; those too would come later. And anyone and everyone could be your friend.

I still remember way back in elementary school when I would proudly proclaim both "Tiger" the school janitor and Joe the neighbor were my best friends in the world. Know what....they probably were....along with virtually everyone else who came into my life. That was until the bully situation happened as discussed in lesson five.

Bottom line when we all lose something along the way. We grow filters and build walls and somehow lose our kid-like ability to have fun and enjoy all that comes into our world; people, places, experiences, etc.. But you haven't lost your kid-like abilities you just aren't skilled at using them anymore.

Try evoking lesson number six and see what kind of Ripples you can create. Try finding a fun way to reconnect with someone in your life. Send them one ticket to the circus and tell them you will meet them there. Seek out one of the old lunch boxes (you know the metal ones that were so cool back in the day) and fill it with a good book or movie and plenty of treats. Buy a cool kite and send it to your best friend and suggest a day of hooky.

Your only limitation is your imagination.

Want to call up your inner child and see what comes out? Try this exercise....

• Grab three sheets of blank copy paper.
• Grab a brand new box of crayons.
• At the top of one page write Family. On the top of the second page write Friends. On the top of the third page write Business.
• Then on one side make a list of all the fun, creative ways you could do some fun ripples for each of these target audiences. Have fun...brainstorm and let your creative juices really flow. Remember to look at creating these Ripples using your child eyes (they still work ya know!) and imagination (which is limitless....trust me on this).
• On the back side of each page draw (yes...draw) yourself doing one of the Ripples you wrote on the front and show the person's reaction who receives the Ripple.

Sound crazy? Well maybe it is but I guarantee you the Ripples you create are going to be fantastic and extremely memorable!!!

Ripple On and Have Some Fun!!!

Steve