Day 241: Jeanette Grace

May 29, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“… there are countless things that inspire me, but for some reason I was wired to want to help people and touch people and make them happy.  So if I had to say my number one inspiration, it’s making a difference in somebody else’s life.  The reward is just so great.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Jeannette, for agreeing to be with us today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Jeanette Grace: I am Jeanette Grace, or I go by Grace, and our happiness movement is called ShiFT the World.

Toni: ShiFT the World.  Well we’re going to get into that a little bit.  For the interview would you like us to refer to you as Grace or Jeannette?

Grace: You can go by Grace, that’d be fantastic.

Toni: Oh, okay Grace, thank you.  Grace, when you think of that word inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how is that happening?

Grace: Oh, who do I inspire?  Hopefully I am inspiring all of the people that I do a shift for, all of the people who go to our blog, and I find that a lot of inspiration happens just when I am out talking to people about it.  You know, if I’m on an airplane and it comes up and, you know, I share with them what we’re doing.  I mean, the feedback that we get is so fantastic and in return then people start telling us stories of things that they’ve done.

Toni: Okay.  Well you’re going to have to help us here because who you inspire are people that you create this shift around.  How does that shift happen?  What is it?

Grace: A shift is looking for an opportunity to make someone happy, and that can be someone in your life or it can be a complete stranger.  So what we do is look for the opportunities every day, you know, so it’s not that we plan a shift necessarily ahead of time.  We just look for it, because we want to educate people to do that as well.

How can I … like for example, a neighbor, an elderly woman, you know, and I got to thinking about her one day and I’m like “You know what?  She needs to be a shift today.”  So I went and I bought a little potted flower, and I left it on her doorstep, and she recently sent me a thank you card in the mail, which I thought was just delightful.  Does that answer your question?

Toni: It does, and Grace I really want to understand this, and I know people who are reading and listening to your interview will as well.  Your purpose … you’ve created an organization to create these shifts around random acts of kindness or happiness?  Is that what this is?

Grace: That is exactly what it is.

Toni: Wow.  And how often do you do that, and how does it happen?

Grace: We do a shift every single day, either my partner or myself.  And how does it happen?  It happens some could say organically, you know?  Then it’s just keeping your eyes open for an opportunity, and we’re doing things that are … could be of no cost.  An example would be there was … living in Minnesota, winters are harsh, and it had been freezing rain all day.  So I was like “Wow, freezing rain.  What would I appreciate if somebody did for me?  So I drove to a parking lot, and I scraped the ice off of a couple of cars.

You know, one thing I do have to say about shifting is that we really want people to make it a conscious effort, so we don’t necessarily count a shift as something that you would do anyhow.  If somebody gives you a gift and you write a thank you card, well, you know, that’s just proper etiquette.  You should do that anyhow.  So we really are looking for new ways to just make somebody’s day.  And sometimes when we do it, people cry.

Toni: I would imagine they do.  I would imagine that happens.  How do you think by providing these shifts around people or, you know, maybe communities as well, how does it help to explore the potential in others?

Grace: Good question.  How does it help to explore the potential in others?  Well, I would have to say personally I have the belief that there is good in everybody, and sometimes we fail to see that.  So when we do a shift for someone, I think it shifts who they are inside — maybe momentarily, maybe long-term — but it can possibly inspire them then to do something for someone else, which we’re hoping.

And our movement is creating a large group of people doing things, you know, creating an awareness.  So to answer your question – and I’m having difficulty with it – is that really it should just help people to discover what they can do and that it can be very, very simple.,

Toni: Well I don’t think you’ve had difficulty with this question at all.  I think you’ve answered it beautifully, which is, you know, creating that example and paying it forward with movement and that by creating that shift and having other people say “Wow, you know, now let me see what I can do for others.”  And also I would imagine the potential would come from the small gesture, that it doesn’t have to be a large grand gesture, that it could be a very small, simple shift that can rock someone’s world.

Grace: Absolutely, absolutely.

Toni: So Jean … I’m sorry, I was going to call you Jeanette, but I’m going to go with Grace because I love that, I love that.  Grace, what inspires you?

Grace: Oh, what inspires me?  So many things inspire me.  You know, it’s the people in my life.  I’ve been so blessed throughout my life to have people support me and encourage me.  You know, my wiener dog.  He inspires me every morning.  He’s happy to see me.  I’m inspired by sunshine.  I’m inspired by seeing the grass turn green in the spring.  I mean, there’s just … there are countless things that inspire me, but for some reason I was wired to want to help people and touch people and make them happy.  So if I had to say my number one inspiration, it’s making a difference in somebody else’s life.  The reward is just so great.

Toni: How did you get to this place of knowing that this is what you wanted to do, that this is what you were passionate enough to actually do something like this and put a movement in place to make that happen?  What happened?

Grace: My ShiFT the World partner, Jess, and I, we used to work together and we had a crazy energy when we worked together.  And then I had moved out of the state for about a year, and we missed that energy that we had, so every Tuesday night at 9 o’clock we had a 9 o’clock call with wine.  We’d each grab a glass of wine and then we would just sit on the phone and talk about anything we wanted to talk about and get each other excited.

And after a while it occurred to us, you know what, there’s something that we have here that we need to be sharing with the rest of the world.  And so we got together a few times and brainstormed, and that’s how ShiFT the World came about.  You know, what can we do to really make people happy, like, you know, share the energy that we have?  We’re a little crazy, so we take the crazy energy and we’re trying to channel it into ShiFT the World.

Toni: Fantastic.  Fantastic.  And how long have you been doing this?

Grace: We started our first shift on January 1st of this year, 2010.

Toni: Oh, great.  Have you been inspired by any of the outcomes of the shifts that you’ve created?

Grace: Oh, my goodness, it has been absolutely amazing.  One of my favorite shifts probably that really ended up being a shift to me as opposed as a shift for someone else, and that was I was on an airplane and I had received some free, you know, drink/headphone coupons, so I was going to give them to the people sitting next to me as my shift.

Long story short, the woman I was sitting next to was not supposed to be on that flight, and I found out that her son was 7 years old and had died almost 20 years ago, and I said to her “Now I know why God put me in this seat.”  Because we were supposed to launch ShiFT the World on October 1, and we didn’t because a dear friend of mine, their six-year-old died on September 24th, so we postponed it.  And then she and I had … the woman on the plane and I had an opportunity to talk about what can I do for my friends?  You know, what can I do as their friend to support them through the loss of a child?

And at one moment she reached over and held out her hand and she said “This is for you to do something in memory of Nathan,” who was my friends’ son.  And I said “No, no, no, no, no, just thank you for letting me share Nathan’s story. and thank you for sharing your son Tommy’s story with me.”  And she said “Then do something in memory of Tommy as well.”  And it was money, and I put it in my bag, and now I’m crying on the airplane, and she started to cry, and I got in the car at the airport and I looked and she had given me a hundred dollars.

Toni: Oh my goodness.

Grace: Yeah, I was … and that’s where I went, this speaks to when we do things for other people we get more than we ever expected in return.

Toni: Grace, how did you follow up with that then?

Grace: Interesting.  I still have the money.  It is in my jewelry box because I told her that I would do something with my friends for their son, and we haven’t decided what that is.  But we’ve been talking, and I’ve been talking to Jane, the woman I met on the plane, and so we have some ideas.  And currently I am trying to coordinate a meeting with Jane and then my friend Nicole who lost Nathan, because as women and as mothers having lost a son, I’m thinking that there might be some healing in them having a relationship.

Toni: So that what she may have done is given you seed money for connection.

Grace: Yeah.  And ultimately what she has done is helped me to be a better support for my friend and, yeah, and if I can connect the two of them how beautiful that would be.

Toni: Absolutely, she’s built a bridge.  That’s awesome.  So Grace what do you do to explore your own potential so that you can continue to create these shifts?

Grace: Oh, explore my potential – you know, challenge myself.  One of the things that we do is try not to repeat a shift, so it really makes us be creative in developing ideas, and also trying … because we want to be able to share this and give people ideas, we can’t afford to spend $5, $10 every day to do a shift.  So trying to come up with ideas that are inexpensive or probably free would be great.

And I do a lot of reading.  I do a lot of reading to see what are other people doing and drawing inspiration from whatever literature it is that I’m reading at that time, and doing things like going to the Get Inspired! Project, listening to other people’s stories.

I think that’s a great way to … just to keep going, because sometimes it’s hard.  I mean, just because we inspire people doesn’t mean that we don’t ever have days when we’re down or where we’re like “Oh, I’ve got to go shift the world today.”  But once we do it we feel fantastic, so I don’t have one answer for that.  I think this is a process, and we’re trusting in the process and that it will be something really fantastic.  So what I see my potential as today will probably be very different in 30 days from now and a year from now.

Toni: Absolutely, and you have no idea where that potential will impact others, just others that may listen to your interview and think “Gosh, you know, I’m over in Spain and I would like to start a project like this, I would like to do something like this.”  And you may never know that impact, and that’s pretty amazing, and for people like yourself that are … just because it’s the right thing to do, creating these shifts for others, we cannot thank you enough, and we’re honored to have you be part of the Get Inspired! Project.

Grace: Well thank you so much, Toni, it is such a pleasure.  And I love what you’re doing, so kudos to you.

Toni: Well thank you Grace, it’s been a pleasure.  Take care.

Grace: Thank you.  You too.

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For more information about Jeanette Grace:  shifttheworldwithjessandgrace.wordpress.com

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