knowabundance.com

Happy Monday!

We act as if only what we can count matters.

How many (Facebook) friends or (Twitter) followers do we have?

How many donors? How many opens and clicks on our email campaigns? How many views on our YouTube videos?

How much money in our bank account?

We sometimes forget that our computers and our spreadsheets only capture a portion of our work and a fraction of our lives.

Not everything can be tracked and counted.

I told five or more (I lost count) people I know the past few weeks about a 50% off special that PsPrint was having on business cards for the month of May. These were phone, face-to-face, or personal email conversations. Nothing that can be tracked “on-line” by PsPrint via clicks or Twitter messages.

PsPrint didn’t ask me to join a Facebook Fan page or suggest that I forward a message about this great price break. (Which I wouldn’t have done. I’m not big on spamming my friends or declaring love for a corporate entity.)

Mentioning PsPrint in conversation happened naturally because their services related to a real time need. They had a good deal and because I’ve used their on-line printing with success I felt confident recommending them.

Also in the past few weeks, three people told me about “The Story of Stuff” and Annie Leonard. Two of these were “off-line” face-to-face conversations, one was an email forward of the Global Greengrants e-newsletter from a friend.

The first time I heard about “The Story of Stuff” and Annie Leonard I forgot her name and the name of the video. The second time I said, “Oh yeah, I heard about that but forgot the name of it.” The third time gave me the link to the video and more information.

I still haven’t watched the “Story of Stuff” but now I remember Annie’s name and the title of the video.

These are just two examples of the vast world of “off-the-record” conversations and activity that spread information – and (we hope) create change.

Will Annie ever know the true impact of her video and message? How many people will take the “Story of Stuff” lessons and actually implement a change in their lives? And will this change be because of the video or because of a unique-for-each-person combination of things? (Like the work of other organizations and individuals worldwide on similar issues, system wide changes, media reports, monetary incentives, peer pressure and numerous other factors.)

Who knows?

Not everything can be tracked and counted.

Do your thing. Sure, you can pay attention to the numbers but don’t get lost in thinking that “how many” of anything is what ultimately matters.

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p.s.

I was standing in the grocery line one day when a mom and her son, about 7 years old, came up behind me. He was touching all the candy and other treats by the checkout counter and asked his mom the price of something. After she replied with a price, he despondently said, “oh, EVERYTHING costs money.”

I smiled at him and said, “Not everything. Friendship and love don’t cost money.” And his mom said, “That’s right. All of the important things are free.”