Today’s Mental State: Thrilled and Daunted


There’s a sign in our kitchen area that Noah made that says this:




We’ve been spending a lot of time on strategic planning and developing new programs lately. After we went through the entire strategic plan from beginning to end, including specific program goals, someone asked “How does this make you feel?” and Noah said, “Thrilled and daunted.” I think this is the perfect way to describe how we all were feeling (and how I feel on a daily basis.)

We’ve made a lot of changes over the last few years - new programs, new partners, more visibility – we even completed renovated our office space last year. It’s been a really exciting time to be here, and sometimes the pace is overwhelming. On days when the needle is pointing towards thrilled, I am energized by all the amazing artists we work with, excited by the possibilities of working together with organizations and people to provide new services, and gratified that the things we know about the power and value of artists in their community are taking hold in the public consciousness. And on days when the needle points to daunted, I feel overwhelmed by the number of people who want something from us, nervous about how to articulate what we do, and worry that maybe the comments on the StarTribune website really do reflect majority opinion.

But the exciting stuff happens when thrilled and daunted are in balance. When we take on an issue or a problem that is daunting (like healthcare) and we find the people, organizations and resources that thrill us – that’s when something awesome happens.

If you’d like to find your own balance of thrilled and daunted, some of our new fall workshops might help inspire you: http://www.springboardforthearts.org/Workshops/Workshop.asp

-laura