After driving a smelly twenty-seven-year-old pick up truck with wobbly steering and a barely functional clutch all night from my cousin’s wedding outside Pittsburgh to my friend’s networking day-long workshop in Manhattan, one of the session leaders asked the attendees to describe ourselves. I was too tired for small talk. He gave us paper and crayons do illustrate our descriptions.
I asked if I could demonstrate instead of illustrate. He liked the idea. So when my turn came to describe myself, I brought everyone into a circle, told them my burpee-starting and SIDCHA stories, and had everyone do a few burpees.
Everyone loved doing burpees. They get the blood flowing and your lungs breathing. In a group they’re fun. Afterwards, people thanked me for making the interaction active.
At the end of the session the leader gave us cards and stamped envelopes that we addressed and shared so we would all write each other. As we parted I said to everyone

“I would be honored and flattered if you would wait a month to send me your cards and tell me about your SIDCHA experience for the month, if you do it.”

A month later, look at the awesome card one attendee sent, total rock star stuff:

It says:

7 Jun

Hello Josh–

I was going to do some offbeat and witty activity but I decided just to do burpees instead. Here is a calendar I made to mark each day off. I will also make a special annotation when I do them in skinny jeans and blazer [which we both happened to wear the day we met].

–K

…

8 Jul

Josh, these 30 days were fantastic, thanks for introducing me to SIDCHAs! It felt good marking each day down and I’m confident that it’s something I can continue consistently. I’ve also started doing jumping jacks more consistently as well; 200 before I play a game of chess each day (I play a lot of online chess… this keeps me from playing too much).

Anyway, thanks again, looking forward to what’s next!

Cheers, K

Click on the image to see all the calendar entries, including when he vacationed in Miami and when he got his card from me.
I hope you enjoy starting your SIDCHAs if you haven’t.