Recently, during one of my talks, someone asked me for ideas of how to get started with whimsy…. whimsy 101 tips for those who need more help thinking about how to get started. I have a hard time thinking about general ideas that work for everyone off the top of my head. I think this is because, to me whimsy is very personal and specific to what I think will bring joy or be surprising to myself or someone else. This, of course, is different for everyone. I thought I would share my way of thinking when I seek to create whimsy.
Fun... Silly... Surprising... Makes Someone Laugh...
Fun... Silly... Surprising... Makes Someone Laugh...
When I plan something whimsical, I try and think about what would be fun, silly, surprising and would make someone laugh. One morning I got a text from a friend of mine and she told me that she was feeling a little down because of some hard circumstances she was facing. I had a little space that morning so I recruited my daughter’s help to put together a care package to cheer up my friend and her family.
We did a small brainstorming session before launching off to the store. We thought about our friend’s favorite snacks, special comfort food, and special things that meant something to each person in their family. One person in their family likes turtles, so we found a little turtle book. The movie, Trolls, makes one family member laugh so we found a Trolls water bottle to put in the basket. We only went to one store, we did our best to find special, silly things and we wrapped it all up and delivered it that day. We also numbered the gifts to create a more interesting experience. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something fun, surprising, and ended up meaning a lot to our friends.
Whimsy is a mindset. Whenever I lead something in our family or in my work, I typically ask the question: “How can I make this fun, silly, surprising and what would make someone laugh?” I usually can’t create these ideas all on my own, so I either recruit the help of someone around me (most often my husband) or I type a lot of things into the google search engine to find interesting ideas that get my creative thoughts flowing.