Mementum

The world doesn’t need more momentum. We have too much of that already. Just look at the Straight Talk Express or how much steam the recent SUV craze generated or your own daily to-do list.

What the world needs is more Mementum.

What is Mementum?

Mementum is about ideas, but not confined to them.

It’s ideas that matter and move. It’s “green living” and “personal gain” in the same sentence. It’s improving democracy through youth entrepreneurship and without the Land Rovers. It’s the idea of yours that can wake another person up each day, fully Alive, and compel them to act.

It’s something worthwhile to more than one person.

Ideas with weight and velocity have Mementum. That’s ideas that hold meaning, and can spread. And are worth spreading.

Numa Numa spreads, but doesn’t matter. Sustainability has meaning but isn’t spreading. Ideas and movements like these will never last - will never build Mementum - until they have both meaning and velocity.

Seth took the first step by unleashing his idea virus, but now we must go further.

Useless information has momentum. How many ads have you looked at today? Each one adds a worthless bit of information to your brain, increasing your informational mass and making it impossible to slow down.

Clamoring for your attention are 30 second jingles (6 brand touch points per commercial or die), unrecognized color schemes “building brand value,” Causes begging you to care, the latest 5pm news hysteria, telemarketers at dinner (one of which read Influence and is building consistency for the door runner next week), and likely a plethora of friends and “friends” requiring attention and response.

Each and every hour of each and every day you are bombarded with marketing messages everywhere you go, new information every where you look, and new requests every friend you meet. The rate you’re assaulted with these interactions requires your mind to move ever increasingly faster, should you wish to keep up.

How many different applications and browser windows do you have open right now? When was the last time your to-do list decreased in length?

Your mind is literally racing. All the time. Every time. Always ON. Our economy and society is leading ever increasingly toward the 24/7 internet-based lifestyle, a fate from which some will not escape.

The Mementous ideas, the ones that matter and move and change something, are no longer about pushing you faster, harder, or higher.

They’re about making you stop.

Stopping to think.
Stopping to consider.
Stopping so that, for once, you can act.

On something that matters.

Mementum starts when you stop.

This web space is my attempt to examine, reflect on, and contribute to the ideas and conversations around Mementum. It is a blog for now, but there should be no gatekeeper to ideas that move and matter. Together, perhaps we can turn this into something more.