Yes and Go!

Or, do you have a Go Group?

Photo Credit ©Lieven SOETE

2009 is going to be my breakout year, I can feel it tickling in my toes and fizzling in my nose. I’m not exactly sure what I’m breaking out of or where I’ll be when the dust settles, but it seems inevitable that something good is going to happen to me. My attempts to visualize what this success will look like have not been terribly successful since it seems my mind keeps wanting to return to an image of me dressed as Scrooge McDuck in a cave full of riches and treasures and rubies and doubloons.

Really though, it doesn’t really matter to me where I wind up as long as I just keep going.

And that’s where the Go Group comes in. As 2008 started winding down, I found myself spending more and more of my time with a certain circle of friends. It wasn’t that I liked them so much better than everyone else, although they are all extremely charming; more that something about the way we interacted inspired me to keep plugging away and not lose faith.

That winter I reread one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, Blink. There is a chapter where he talks about improve groups and how they manage to keep a scene going, no matter how absurd the premise. The key is to accept all offers, to always say yes. And by saying yes, you develop action, you go.

Reading that made me realize what I had was my own personal Go Group. If I had a complaint about a situation, they didn’t try to minimize it or pacify me or wallow in it with me. Instead, they acknowledged the situation and my feelings (Yes) and then pushed me to make a move (Go). Nobody read your last post and there were two comments? Ouch, I bet that really hurt, I’m sorry it wasn’t a success. What will you write next? I think you’re really strong at writing about food, maybe you could try that?

It’s really easy to get caught up in a loop of mutual complaining. Bad moods and funks are contagious. I think the strength of our Go Group is that when we do start to get mired, somebody takes the initiative to remind us that we do have the power to take positive action.

Recently, we’ve had some hard times in our Go Group. A few of our members have experienced deep losses and hard times have hit more of us. We talked about it, comforted each other and commiserated and fully acknowledged how terrible it all is. There is no glossing over that; pain is real and struggles wear us down. But Monday morning is always on its way and sooner or later you have to prepare yourself to get back in the fight. So what did we do? We had a virtual dance party! Or rather, they did; I had a date with a friend and went out and got some poutine at a Canadian restaurant instead – it’s the tone deaf, clumsy girl’s version of a dance party.

And the next day we were ready to Go.

Do you have a Go Group? Is your answer to life No way? Or Yeah, but? Or is your motto Yes and Go?

If you are interested in our dance party play list you can see it on iTunes: Go Group Dance Party iMix.

If you don’t have access to the iTunes store, you can see the list here.

Tagged as: Blink, dance party, Go Group, poutine