Life Is About Reflection & Why The Reason I "Check-In" Isn't What You Think.
The reason I check-in (daily) is because of 1 thing; Reflection.
Whether you love or hate the new location based services, hear me out. I get the business and power of serendipity (which I believe are more practical use cases of check-ins but this is why I personally do it.)
I spent the last 4 days in Memphis, TN rummaging around with my brother and dad for the International Blues Competition.
Amazing. Seriously, if you can ever go during this competition, go. Walking down Beale St from bar to bar with the best blues music from around the world playing every waking hour is absolutely amazing.
But what about the "Check-Ins" I was talking about and the first word of this post, reflection?
Our entire lives are built upon experiences. Experiences define who we are and ultimately what we become. They define friendships, family and everything in-between.
In comes reflection.
My favorite thing to do is none other than sitting around a table flipping through old photos, videos or letters from the past. Reflection brings upon feelings of happiness, sorrow or remorse and is often the best thing to do with others.
Sometimes, talking about the moments or parties are more enjoyable than the actual night. It drove me to think about how I would reflect on the past four days since I only see most of my family a few times a year.
It made me realize that reflection is actually all about remembering.
If we don't have actual pictures, videos or written notes about a moment in time it becomes very hard to truly "reflect" and feel as though you are there again. Documentation, whether it be pictures, videos or notes, have always been the way we reflect and remember important moments in history. Nowadays, we can have our entire story retold to us in a completely new way...
This is where I get freaking excited.
To know that we live in a world where I can take a picture, push a button and it automatically uploads to groups of friends, links to groups of followers, stores on my personal blog, pings my best friends to tell them something is up, then drive an entire conversation about that moment in time which will last forever honestly
- Blows my mind
- Makes me love everything about the industry I work in
- Gets me jacked about the future of more open and better communication. I really do believe it can change the world and bring all of us closer together, as one society.
So this past weekend I wanted to try something new and make sure I "checked-in" at every single bar/restaurant/location I went to while trying to only be on my phone (I hate phone starers IRL) for this brief moment.
Now, because of services like Gowalla, Foursquare and Facebook Places, I will have an exact story, timeline and photos to document an amazing trip to Memphis for my dad's 60th birthday.
Now to build me an app that takes 2 moments in time (SEA Airport to SEA Airport 4 days later) and tells me a perfect story of my trip to memphis. Something like,
You set out on your trip to "Memphis, TN" by jumping on a plane at the "Seattle International Airport" where you said "Goodbye Seattle" and posted a photo called "Taking off." You were with 37 others as well as your friend "Max McSimov."(You get the idea. Just rewrite my life, basically. The website http://weeplaces.com is close and I embeded my trip below so you can see where I went and when.)
If someone would build that I would love to be a part of it. That would be amazing. Pick any moment in your life and relive the story.
In the end, life is all about the story we create of it but remembering the story just got much easier.
Here's to a better world, better communication and spending more time with the people who matter. The fact that every single thing I do will be a story about my entire life that hopefully my kids or grandkids can read in the future really makes me want to do better, and more everyday.
I never met my Grandpa but I'd love to know if he drank at the same bars that I do. I'd love to just know what he thought, how he acted and if he was a spitting image of his grandson today.
Do you realize that every generation from now on will know exactly who we were, what we liked, where we went and who we were associated with? That's why we should always ask ourselves;
What's my legacy?
You are the only one who can write it nowadays. Not stories passed along. Not wise tales. Just truth. I think about that everyday.
