Editors’ Blog

The 1440 Challenge by our friends at the 1440 Foundation is an exciting, forward-looking initiative, one that all the folks in the mindful community would do well to take notice of as a great thing in itself and an important model for action for everyone.

Yes, as you can read about here, the 1440 Challenge is an awards program that has spurred more than 150 creative groups and individuals to propose new ideas to help people develop the all-important relationship skills based on “self-awareness, authenticity, trust, and empathy.” The 1440 Foundation folks are now reviewing the six finalists and will soon award three $25,000 prizes so these innovative proposals can actually develop the product and really help people. We look forward to the exciting next step—actually seeing the results of the projects that are chosen.

But we think the importance of the 1440 Challenge reaches even beyond the scope of this program—it serves as an example to us all. Inherent in the intention and the goals of this campaign is the idea of inspiring and supporting innovative thinking and action to help bring the values of mindfulness, empathy, and compassion to address the serious challenges in our society—in this case to improve our skills and practices in being in relationships. This is an example of social innovation, where the project has a bigger mission and a clear multiplier effect to impact the broader society.

Of course, we like this project because we see our own Mindful campaign in much the same way. Yes, we are a multi-media nonprofit and we publish websites, print and digital magazines (coming soon!) and host conferences and events. But we see our project as a social enterprise because our mission is to support all the heroic individuals and organizations that are helping to bring mindfulness, empathy, awareness, and compassion to address the difficult issues of our time. We see our action as helping to connect all these dots and thereby foster a stronger, more impactful mindfulness network that can make this kind of innovative thinking an everyday occurrence.

Thanks 1440 Foundation for throwing down the gauntlet.

Click here to see Mindful.org's coverage of 1440 events.