Waking Up...

Well, it's been a few days. Getting back into some form of routine now - doing some freelance, arguing with insurance companies (one thing I've learned is to read the small print..sheesh) and so on.

What is perhaps most marked is my attitude to my things. The realisation that, just perhaps, it is just stuff after all. All the branding, and all the values my things convey - well, they are just that - held in my mind's eye, and can be forever changed.

I keep coming back to the notion that things could have been a lot worse, and the reactions of other people - asking whether I was ok and so forth, and all I was thinking about was 'who cares? My stuff's been pinched'. Small minded? Yes, probably. In hindsight I should have been worrying more about myself, but it's not in my nature to do that (and yes, it's still a pisser my watch and mobile have gone).

Essentially, the title of the post alludes to the fact that no, I'm not going to be quite so short-sighted any more. I'm going to focus on what matters in my life - health, friends, and my happiness. Really place it at the centre. No, I'm not going to adopt a strange religion or abandon advertising, but I am going to re-frame how I think about the world.

If it does nothing else, it completely banishes a professional trap plannery folk fall into - believing the rest of the world values the brand as highly as we do. It's nonsense - people value things that they've always valued...desires and wants, sure, but friends/family a lot more.

Normal half baked nonsense will resume with the next post. Just needed to get that 'un off my chest. (I'm still after a cane though).

"No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better"

Right, I said I'd try and write something to justify my credo. This is it, and I apologise in advance if it's not up to the same standard as Beeker's.

I think my credo could be misinterpreted as Zen-like rubbish. It's strange (and I'll come onto explain this in a little while) but I think it tries to combine diligence and effort with being free spirited, if that makes sense. One thing is for sure, it's not quite up to the standard of this Caddyshack clip about Zen:




I've always lived my life from the perspective of someone who has realised that I don't have the natural ability to instantly be the best at everything I do. Sounds obvious I know, but hell, I think credos are inherently simplistic.

For what it's worth, I like to think I'm a pretty good writer (although this blog may be proving otherwise), someone who is fairly well read, an adequate sportsman (ok, ok, a poor sportman in everything barring golf, football and badminton) and generally a good bloke to be around. As I've mentioned before, I'm a useful trivial pursuit player - I know a little bit about a lot of things.
This lack of innate natural ability (unless I have some fantastic tiddlywinks ability lurking in the background) has always meant that I've had to push myself harder in order to get the most out of my talents.

*Cue thoughts on interestingness, a la Beeker*

Like Richard and Jon Steel say, these are good ways to judge an idea and an advertising execution. But I also think, like Beeker, that these criteria can inform on people as well.

Beeker has chosen the second, beauty, to inform on her credo. Yet I think the first - truth - informs on my credo, if I'm honest.

Watch this:



Now, how does knowing the truth have anything to do with failure? Well, my argument to that is that it's incredibly important. Knowing who you are, or where something is coming from, is the cornerstone of how I think and act. It's not to say things cannot change. They can, and frequently do. But knowing the now, as much as is possible, means that you can 'fail better' and improve.

Beauty and rationality are both important, but I feel that the middle ground, the truth, better informs on who I am.

I can take leaps of faith, but equally, at times, need to believe something to see it, and my perception of beauty changes with the day. The truth changes as well, but of the three, it seems to me to be the most tangible, and as such, the heart of my thinking on life, brands, the universe or indeed, the Dalai Lama.