Mighty Summit

Events

Last year, after the Broad Summit, the organizers got on the phone to talk about whether we wanted to do it again. We all had a great time, but of course it was a lot of work. Even though the event was a success none of us were sure we wanted to re-up.

We got to talking about why, because it didn’t make much sense, until we realized there had been no real intention behind the Broad Summit. We mostly just wanted to see if we could do it. Personally, I wanted to check “organize a retreat” off my Mighty Life List, provide a fun weekend for girls who have given each other lots of support through the years, and find out whether we could plan something on that scale without losing our shirts in the process (first-year events tend to lose money). Once the event was over, the general feeling among the organizers was sort of, “Check. Did it.”

We realized that if we were going to do the Summit again, we needed a stronger reason. At the time, my new emphasis was on my Mighty Life List — building my site around it, making my living from living my dreams, helping other people start thinking the same way. So we decided to change the name to Mighty Summit, and use the event as a way to encourage attendees to dream bigger.

We wanted to make the concept of goals explicit in the event to make it more meaningful for everyone. Boy did it ever.

This year, we asked attendees to write life lists and made sure everyone had copies of all the lists before they arrived. On the first day, I said that I’d had an amazing outpouring of support from all of you when I first posted my list. Many of you asked how you could help, offered to let me stay with you while I traveled, or to loan me something I needed to make my dreams go.

That experience made me realize how often our grandest dreams are someone else’s day to day life. You want to write a book? I’m a publisher! You want to go on a cruise? I’m the publicity director for a cruise line! At the Summit, we asked everyone to talk to one another about their lists, and see where we could help each other. Everyone got started on the little stuff right away.

Danielle taught Laura to knit.

Helen Jane taught us how to saber open a champagne bottle with a knife. (Holy crap, that is easy, you guys. Margaret made a video, so go watch and try it with a $5 bottle of Cava. You will feel superhuman.)

And lots of us posed for Karen‘s 1,000 portraits project.

On the third day, after we’d had a chance to get to know one another, we did a group meditation on our life lists over lunch. We asked everyone to choose five things they thought they could accomplish in the next year, and choose one area where they needed help.

We asked for little things, like help learning to use our cameras.

And huge things, like help starting foundations.

We had a chance to be vulnerable with each other.

To offer our own talents, and to lift each other up.

We talked about how all boats rise together in the tide, and what we could do to make that tide a little stronger.

As for me, I went into this year wondering if I wanted to do the Mighty Summit at all, and came out of it planning for next year before we’d even hugged everyone goodbye.

I made some great new friends, and learned a little bit about how powerful it can be to ask for help. And now I think it’s time to ask for help from all of you.

I will always love the intimacy of the Summit, but for me the Life List concept is much bigger than 14-room hotel. For a long time, I’ve been wanting a place for all of us to share our lists and help each other cross things off, but I’ve been a little perfectionist about it (imagine!), and needing things “just so” is keeping me from doing anything at all. Here are the three things I’m committing to:

1. Starting a real community.

I want: A place on Facebook where we can all start talking about what’s going on with our lists. What’s on them, what we need help with, how we can find each other geographically and start planning meetups.

I need help with: Advice on the best way to do this. I’m kind of stumbly with Facebook to say the least.

2. Giving everyone a simple way to track their Life Lists.

I want: A Facebook app that would give us an easy way to write our lists, cross things off, and link out to the info we’ve posted online — just like I do with my own list. I have some really specific ideas of how I want it to look and what I want it to do.

I need help with: The contact info for a smart app developer who has done this kind of thing with Facebook before.

3. A space for everyone.

I want: Sometime in the next year or so, I’d like to have a campout/meetup/conference open to everyone where we do the same kinds of things we do at the Summit, but on a larger, more-inclusive scale. The downside will be no free massages, the upside will be that everyone will be there.

I need help with: Getting you there. You should come.

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146 thoughts on “Mighty Summit”

  1. I’ll second Mrs Kennedy: I like this new direction a lot. None of my skills match your current needs, but when they do you can count on me!

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  3. The stars, they are aligning. Here’s an excerpt of what I wrote on Tara Austen’s blog this morning about being at your next summit, before I knew you would open it up to everyone:

    “Someday I will be sitting at the summit and we will laugh about this post. You will say “there was this crazy girl Paige, who put the world’s longest comment on my blog and told me she would be joining this group. And now here you are!”
    Full comment: http://teaandcookies.blogspot.com/2010/09/throwing-your-hat-into-ring.html

    About FB: When you create the Fanpage, make sure you allow for everyone’s comments to be visible on the wall. Some fanpages are set up so that only the owner’s comments show up on the main page and you have to click to another page to see other people’s wall posts. This does NOT feel like a community.

    Can’t wait to hear more details and I will help where ever I can and I also live in Northern California!

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  4. Um, can I come too?

    Love the idea of mini mighty meetups and would love to see this take off in Chicago too! Chicago has such wonderful pockets of creative communities and it would be wonderful to see them all come together!

    *confession* I just stumbled on your blog today but I got super inspired and I’ve already started my list! This is exactly what I have been looking for!

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  5. I have to echo the ‘no facebook’ sentiments. I’m not even sure I’d belong at this thing you’re planning, but if it’s through facebook, I won’t use that either. Facebook makes me feel like I’m stalking my friends – so I quit nearly a year ago. I would recommend a new domain, and maybe something like drupal (even though I also hate that), joomla or something similarly boxed (perhaps this buddypress people are referring to, i’m unfamiliar) to build it and create users that can post and build pieces of it. I don’t know that I’d truly have time to help, but I could surely try (as a web developer).

    I also like the idea of mini mighty summit’s because it’d be easier for people to reach/participate. However that option removes the possibility of meeting Mighty Maggie herself and her super awesome mighty friends unless you live wherever her mini is. Disappointing, but doable.

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  8. ning is easy to set up. I think they’ve made moving it all easier when they decided to charge money for it. (or actually others, like posterous made it easy to move from ning)

    I pay $20 a month to keep my little neighborhood network up. Lots of ning experts out there who could probably help with a transition at some point.

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  10. i’ve been trying to decide what to do for my 40th birthday in november and i think i will have a mighty lifelist party with 8-10 of my favorite ladies in louisville and nashville! i’ll let you know the results.

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  15. I am usually a lurker on your site, but this inspirational post required that I leave a comment.

    What a powerful and memorable weekend. It is so amazing when a group of people can come together, be open and vulnerable, and get so much support from others. I thinks it’s particularly powerful when it’s women, as some time women are the hardest on each other (e.g., critcal, catty, non-supportive, judgemental).

    Your three ideas sounds fantastic and I can’t wait to hear more about all of them.

    Based upon this post, I am giving myself one month make a solid stab at my own Mighty Life list and to post it to my own blog.

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  16. I have so loved reading about everybody’s experiences at the Summit and would love to get involved in some way. I’m all about going BIG this year and am ready to put my Life List into action. I spend a lot of time interacting with people online. One of the things on my list is to get out there and meet more like-minded people in “real life”.

    I love the idea of meet-ups in our own cities. It would be a great way to help our own communities cross items off their life lists. I live in Seattle. Let me know if there’s some way I can help!

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  17. i’m in!

    i’m so incredibly excited that you posted such an all-inclusive invitation to help individuals feel better, grow, learn something new, and give back to others.

    {you basically just gave the online community a license in ass-kickery and name-takery}

    *applause! applause!*

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  20. Magical Maggie, I’ve been waiting for you to bust out something like this. Hurrah, hurrah!

    I’ll help in any way possible, you know that. If you need a regional captain for Mighty Summit Northwest, I’m all yours.

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  23. I love the idea of Mini Mighty Summits and am also on the anti-Facebook train. But with you as our fearless leader? I’ll do it.

    Speaking of Mighty Life Lists, I just crossed another item off my list. Last night I launched my blog! We’ve still got some kinks to work out but I am on my way!

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  24. Thank you for inspiring a crazed shut in stay at home mom to dream big.

    Things I Long to do Before I Die.

    1. See a Moose.

    2. Ride in a Hotair Balloon

    3. Spend a Summer Perfecting Sand Castles

    4. Get Back Down to Pre-Baby Weight (preferably before I turn 30)

    5. Ride a Boat From One Continent to Another (preferably not a cruise ship)

    6. See a Musical on Broadway from great seats.

    7. Meet Ellen, and have her find me delightful.

    8. Have my own room/space/hut to create art or walk around with out pants on in.

    9. Catch a fly ball at Fenway with out cringeing like a girl.

    10. Dive from a high dive with out injuring myself, (or losing my bathing suit).

    11. Do yoga on the beach at sunrise with out feeling foolish

    12. Ride a motorcycle by my self.

    13. Learn enough woodworking to build my own furniture

    14. Glass blow my own vase.

    15. Build a working art carosel.

    And many more things I haven’t thought of yet.

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  25. Have you checked out dayzeroproject.com? It was started a while ago in New Zealand. It looks similar to what you are describing.

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  26. Mighty summit sounds like a blast! I’m a new reader to your website, but my husband and I created a combined life list a few weeks before our wedding (at the beginning of September). As a wedding present to him, I turned the list into a book for us to track our progress.

    Anyway! My husband (apeofsteel.com) is a “software guy” and experienced at creating facebook apps. He created one to cheat at scrabble. Hehe. Oh, we’re also in Berkeley. =)

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  28. I am so glad you are realizing this dream! You have helped my life so much, through your inspiration to create a Life List of my own. I am amazed at how, once I made the list, things started to “appear” that I needed to see, have, or know to accomplish items on my list. I am not on Facebook, but would love any chance to participate in the expansion of the Mighty Work. I would also love to see you write a book featuring women who have accomplished a Life List goal. I picture a beautiful picture taking up one whole page, and the story on the other side. Like an inspirational coffee table book. This is because I love reading other’s lists that have linked here before, and I always wonder about the story behind the story. And I love pretty books and your writing.

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  29. Can I ask an unrelated question? How do you deal with it when you want to have a gathering like this, that is open to your community of blogger friends, and you discover that there’s someone in the group that is annoying. I’m not saying one of your participants is or was annoying, I don’t even know who they were.

    But I have plenty of friends and sometimes in a group, especially in group of smart, expressive women, there’s just sometimes that person there that you think “Oh God, this would be perfect if this person weren’t so grating/aggressive/combative/phony/irritating/controlling/insert your bugbear here in her own inimitable and predictable fashion.”

    Or what if you worry that you are that person? That at least one person is like “Oh no. So-and-so is here. So-and-so makes me crazy with annoyance.”

    Maybe someday you can address something like this? Or maybe you’re ready to like everyone and I’m just looking for pet hatreds? I swear I am not a horrible person.

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  30. Thank you for considering doing this Mighty Summit on a larger scale. I hadn’t realized how much I want to be a part of a community like that until I read your words…and then it made me cry.

    I live in St. Louis, MO, but if there is anything I can do to help make this happen, I would love to help. In fact, that might make it on my list.

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  31. I would love to participate in this, but I want to ask you to reconsider the facebook aspect of this. I am an avid user of FB, but I am not comfortable with their frequently-changing privacy settings, and not having control over what others may inadvertently have access to. Also, wouldn’t using FB as the main tool dilute the brand?

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  32. Hi, I came from Meg’s site where she so movingly wrote about the summit and how incredible it was to meet with an awesome group of women. And while I am the total opposite of crafty, I am ridiculously organized and good at making spreadsheets and lists and things of that nature. I also plan and execute large conferences for work – so if you need help with #3 please let me know! I have a pretty good idea of the logistics that go into planning for 300 (or more) people to show up at one place and knowing what to do with them 😉

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  34. I’ll be there! I think you have already created a wonderful community of women you have inspired.

    For some ideas on your app, I would check out http://dayzeroproject.com/. This is where I got the idea to create my list and it has lots of fun functionality.

    Thank you again for all that you have done. And keep asking for help! We will be here.

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  36. Maggie–Heard about this from Helen Jane, and it stopped my breath for a while, I was that excited. I’d definitely be there for #3, and if there are any other ways I can be involved, count me in. The idea for a list scares me which excites me which means I’ve got to do it. Are we to send them to you??? Or post them on our blogs? And can they be on-going?

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  37. Is anyone in Houston interested in starting a Mighty Group/Mighty Circle like Rachel mentioned above? I don’t blog, just lurk, but I would definitely like to be a part of a group in Houston. I’ve started sending out emails to a few friends but I thought I would check in here and see if anyone is already doing something.
    jamie.baird@hotmail.com

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  38. thank you Maggie, THANK YOU. remind me sometime to tell you about the time I was standing behind you at Radiohead at Outside Lands… 😉

    ditto to most of the FB comments, that ultimately it might not be the best “host” for the lists. however, it is down and dirty and will surely blow-up quick! I say do it, and then work on non-FB solution. people will follow, not to worry.

    I know there is a lot of other back-end technical mumbo jumbo to care about, but I say, go ahead and make the FB Page at least.

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  39. Facebook! Great idea. I would like to see some kind of app that we could get in the iTunes App store, or a Droid store that would upload to FB (like the Blackberry mobile FB app).

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  40. Maggie– where are the cute, colorful flats from everyone seems to be wearing? Sorry if I missed this detail in an earlier post, but man they are adorable. Thanks.

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  41. I did a “30 Before 30” list a few years back and really enjoyed it. I didn’t get to cross everything off, but I felt good about what I did.

    A life list scares me, in a good way. I’m doing a lot of existing instead of living at the moment…the existing is good, but I would like to be someone who my baby girl will be proud of one day.

    Now, I just have to decide what I want to do!

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  42. What a coincidence that I tripped into this blog (via ‘Teandcookies’ and ‘knitting40shadesofgreen’ blogs) as I was just thinking this morning I should write a life list. I am 53 and at a point where I do not know exactly what I want anymore. I have so many ideas but not the confidence to start anything. Making a list and crossing off an item would be so satisfying. You are a mighty girl and thank you for the push to a first step of many.

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