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The Atomic Habits of Blippi
September 22, 2021
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Who could have conceived that a little movie about some dead baseball players and a father- son relationship could have spawned a real baseball game 30+ years later, just adjacent to the very corn fields of dreams that the movie was filmed on in Iowa?
There’s an amazing thing that happens when we follow things through to completion, that we give those things the ability to transcend even their original purpose.
I couldn’t get Zion, my three year old to brush his teeth last night, so I typed ‘tooth brush song’ into the search box on YouTube, and before the search was up he saw something he recognized and called it out by name. “BLIPPI,” he yelled, then did something that shocked me, followed his exclamation up by spelling the name out. “B-L-I-P-P-I.”
Earlier in the day when I picked him up from pre-school his teacher told me he was good with his letters and numbers but doesn’t yet recognize his last name, Wagman. So, he can spell Blippi, but he can’t answer if you ask him what his own last name is.
There Are Germs Living in Your Mouth
So Blippi it was and as Blippi discovered the toothbrush in his own pocket, Zion starts to jump up and down and doesn’t want me brushing his teeth anymore as he proclaims, “I wanna do it!” And so, I let him, and Blippi taught my son to brush in circles on all sides of his teeth, and in two minutes the song guided to a tongue brushing and even taught the “Why,” in oral hygiene.
Who is this Blippi, whom it appears has some MK Ultra mind control over my kid? So, I go digging and what I found will expose Blippi for years to come. Blippi is an educational show of adventure for kids, taking them to see things that excite the senses with colors, shapes, numbers, letters, clay, cookies and ice cream. When you watch the early seasons of Blippi vs. the latter seasons, it’s obvious the budgets got better as time went on, but what never got lost was the ability to draw in the curiosity of the child’s mind.
I can think of a lot of ideas and half-done projects that I’ve failed to follow through on over the years and when I read the book, Atomic Habits by James Clear, I get excited because the difference between half-done and completion isn’t night and day, or east to west, but only a 1% difference in the way you build good habits and break bad ones.
It’s not about running a marathon on day one, but first running to the stop sign. Then after that, running to the next road. If we add 1% to the routines we perform regularly, the habit with those small gestures amplifies to an outcome of less clutter, greater freedom and the road to goals being accomplished.
Leaving the coffee cup on the table after you drink it is a habit and later when eight of them sit there, you’d probably get frustrated enough to put them all in the sink. But what if, with only 1%, we finished our cup, rinsed it, washed it or even put it on the rack for the next dishwasher load? It’s the ‘Make Your Bed’ theory.
His Toys Have Their Own Shelf Space at Target
As I sit here watching back-to-back episodes of Blippi, what I see is a man, who had an idea. It wasn’t new necessarily, but he followed that idea from thought to planning to execution and it didn’t matter how limited his resources were, he was committed, and his habits allowed him to not only complete a first edition, but then go to a next one, and a next one and a next one.
The idea didn’t have to be new, because what this man has that no one else has is HIMSELF, his unique idiosyncrasies and perspectives, so new will be new when he applies himself over the concept.
My favorite part of Blippi’s art is that when he makes a mistake or if something happens in the process of taping, he doesn’t yell, “CUT!” and make it seamless and perfect, but instead leaves in the raw element of surprise and works around it, not only sending a phenomenal message to kids, but also allows us to see the sides of him that most of us would try to cover up; a powerful trait in impactful personalities, a trait which takes confidence, or at least the knowledge of how to strategize ways to deep engagement.
And the only difference between him and me and so many others, is that his habits are good. Who is Blippi? His name is Stevin John, a veteran of the US Air Force, turned video content creator, whose military discipline played a part in a couple of posts to YouTube, which turned into a couple more, then another, subsequently turning him into a rockstar in the eyes of my kids.
As Long As He Doesn’t Call Him Daddy
I appreciate the adventures he will take my kids on, from boating to making chocolates to the teaching of baseball and throwing out the first pitch at an Arizona Diamondbacks game.
Apply this mindset to your podcast or content ideas and watch where the follow through takes you.
Who could have thought a movie made 32 years ago could ever turn into a real Major League Baseball game, and who could have ever thought that a man dressing up in orange and light blue, posting silly childish things on YouTube could ever turn into a dynasty. I bet you Stevin didn’t even think that far ahead, but it’s tremendous what can happen when the extra 1% allows for things to occur that nobody stuck between the stalks in the cornfield could have ever dreamt.
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