I’ve been on holidays. A three-week holiday in fact. For the most part I didn’t try and check in with the office, keep tabs on email or maintain a blog. Because what I really needed above all else was a proper break. Sure I spent the best part of three months preparing things for my departure, tying things up and handing things over … but guess what … it was worth it.
Paragliding is one of my passions and one that I have somewhat neglected since the arrival of young Tom 627 days ago. But on this trip I managed a handful of really good days flying, amongst stunning glaciers and 4,000m peaks in Switzerland and some ‘chocolate box’ flying around Lake Annecy in France. Paragliding might be boring, dangerous and expensive but for me it represents one of the few times in our day to day lives when you really are, once stepping off that hill, responsible for your own destiny. It’s pure. It’s liberating. It’s reviving.
But why?
It’s good for the soul
There’s a lot of waiting around involved but more often than not you are in a stunning, or at least interesting place. That’s good in itself. Once you do step of the hill it’s the simplicity, independence and focused nature of free flying that really works for me. You can’t step off or take a break. You have to deal with what happens there and then. Feedback and results are immediate. It’s a great antidote to the sometimes complex world of work.
It’s good for the mind
A break from work helps you find perspective. Something else to focus your attention on speeds up that process. It’s a kind of disk defrag for the mind. It’s a way of rewiring the neural pathways you develop when working too hard for too long. What’s more that helps great ideas come to light. Like it or not back in the office things won’t change or happen without them.
And it’s often about the people
I have lived, visited and flown in over ten different countries. Many of the people I have met along the way I am either still in touch with, or for the brief time I spent with them, they have often inspired me or at the very least brought a different perspective on things. Mad Dog Chris who I flew with last week for example, who lives in Hawaii and works in a restaurant but spends more time flying, kiting and surfing than waiting tables. These people help remind you there is a whole world out there and there is more than one way to skin a cat.
So armed with a better state of mind, some fresh ideas and maybe a different approach to things I am returning to the office. And that’s good for business.
So take a break and pursue your passion.
And if you want to learn to fly you could do a lot worse than go visit my good friends Rob and Nic at Fly Spain in Andalucía. You won’t regret it.
He’s the patron saint of Wales. Today is Saint David’s Day – he died 1422 years ago. They’ve been celebrating this day in Wales ever since. Happy Saint David’s Day!
Our Managing Director Jon recently celebrated a big birthday. One with a zero involved, that’s all I’m saying. His birthday present to himself was a ‘top of the range’ road bike. He sure does love that bike. I’ll ask him to post his thoughts on how much he loves his new bike very soon. In-between his euphoria he has fleeting moments of tormenting guilt about how much it cost.
This got me thinking about how pre-purchase thinking and consuming conscientiously is in part about making sure you’re really going to love something for the long term. If you love it, you value it, and if you value it, you’ll care for it.
Nowadays I seem to agonize longer over purchases then I ever did before. Shopping is something I avoid unless absolutely necessary. Some of the questions I try to untangle go like this:
Did the person (or company) have ‘fire in their bellies’ about making it the best it could be? Were they passionate about it? Has obsolescence been sneakily built into the design? Is it inherently disposable? Do I love it? And will I love it ‘long time’. Why do I love it? Fashion? Kudos? Have I given this purchase proper thought? Will I use it regularly? Is it practical? Ahhhh! Buying things is tough.
Here are a few things I thought hard about and decided yes I would love them and yes they would bring me a bit of joy every single time I used them.
My ‘box of Poppets’ size camera. It’s dead handy and bloody lovely to look at and hold.
My Roberts Radio. It’s on almost 365 days a year in my house. I love the buttons and the lovely rounded, deep sound.
My new shower cap. An obvious solution to keeping the ‘hairdo’ in check and adding a bonus ten minutes to my day. Got to love that.
And so to the real ‘digital’ point I’m trying to make. Web content, websites and blogs need constant nurturing; they are living things that are never finished. Owners have to continuously invest time into maintaining and developing the content and functionality. Being the demanding little buggers they are its vital that people love their websites and that using them brings them joy.
Making sure users enjoy their websites is a core design and UX (user experience) challenge. Not only should it look lovely up front it should be quick, easy and enjoyable update and maintain from the back end.
If using your website brings you (or the team) no joy it’s destined for neglect and will inevitably end up in the big digital landfill in the sky. Our Word Press blog is testament to a great back office user experience and a great design by Pete and his team on the front end.
Back in April I was lucky to get tickets for the first TEDx event to be held in Cardiff. If like me you’ve arrived a bit late to the TED party here’s a quick introduction to the concept.
TED stands for – Technology, Entertainment, Design. The overriding mission is to spread great ideas from great thinkers, for free, through the internet. It started as a conference held in California back in 1984 and since then it’s grown to become a four day conference where 50 speakers are each given 18 minute slots. There are more than 500 TED Talks on TED.com.
TEDx is the smaller more local baby offspring of the TED conference. Hosted by the Millennium Centre the Cardiff TEDx event went down a storm. Check out the aftermath comments at tedxcardiff.co.uk.
‘Harmony and Ideas; Why Perfection Is Your Enemy’ was my favourite talk of the night. Paul Clarke’s theatrical and a let’s face it a bit bonkers delivery made for a captivating performance, mixing mathematical insights with audience participation and Jonny Ball style demos. I loved the idea that whilst music comes from the soul it is without doubt underpinned by robust mathematics…..I’m no mathematician but for a while there I was hooked.
Another blinder was Steve Robinsons talk that revisited some of his best moments from the making of the Cardiff made series The Tribe. – What We Can Learn From Tribal Cultures.
The team of volunteers headed up by Claire Scantlebury and Neil Cocker did an amazing job. Thanks to all for a memorable night.
Last week we met a friend and ex-colleague Neil Cocker for a coffee and a catch up. Apart from being an all round smart cookie and good egg Neil has been very aptly described as a “creative industries ninja” due to his ability to quietly be everywhere and work on several projects at the same time. To give you an idea of the pies he’s got his fingers in check out this list of his current projects.
Managing Director of Dizzyjam, a merchandising service for the independent music scene.
Co-organiser of the first TED talks in Cardiff due to be held in Millennium Centre on the 14th April 2010.
Co-organiser of Ignite Cardiff a networking event that brings Cardiff’s community of creative and digital folk together.
Mentor for Community Music Wales, working with disadvantaged young people and consultant for the Welsh Assembly Government.
Neil in one of those people who has an extraordinary knack for making friends and acquaintances and then rallying them to come together and do something. Malcolm Gladwell would probably call him a ‘connector’ and a ‘maven’.
Whilst chatting with Neil about work (and quite often and very happily veering off topic) I was struck by how Neil is almost pathologically interested in everything and just can’t help himself from being helpful. How does this man sleep? With so much going on how does he organise himself? We talked about this and quickly we all agreed that training yourself to say ‘no’ and do less was very difficult if you are indeed hard coded to want to know more, learn more and do everything.
The talk that Neil gave at the third Ignite Cardiff was called ‘The art of blackspotting, and having less’. It covered some of the ways he’s trying to simplify his life. He is hunting out spaces with no wireless and he’s going back to relying on email and Twitter for the information he needs. If you’re unfamiliar with the Ignite format it’s worth setting the scene; the speakers have 5 minutes to race through 20 slides, the slides rotate automatically every 15 seconds. The audience is around 200 strong. The art (so I’m told) is to make sure that what’s coming out of your mouth matches up with the slide. Meanwhile not giving away too much of the panic you’re feeling inside.
When I spoke to Neil about his talk his response was this:
“I really didn’t like my presentation a huge amount. I didn’t have time to learn it properly, and tried to fit too much in. It’s fairly garbled! In a way it was good, because it taught me to never commit to doing stuff I haven’t got time for. As I wrote a few days afterwards …” … read Neil’s post
I was there on the night and I thought it came across really well. Have a look and make up your own mind.
We couldn’t agree more with this formula. In fact it’s now written on a Post-it note and stuck on my wall to the left of my computer screen. It’s always there in my peripheral vision helping remind me to name my files accurately, back up my computer regularly, test, check and double check everything before we present it to the client.
Wrapping neat ideas in rigorous process driven stuff may feel uncomfortable, but delivering a good idea through to execution demands a large dose of meticulous, pedantic, attention to detail … and time. FACT … a painful one no less.
My friend and much valued colleague Bryn always tells me to blog about non-work related stuff. Today is Saturday. I love Saturdays. It’s the one day of the week when I try to do absolutely nothing work related. Today I went flying.
So why flying, or more accurately paragliding? Amongst other things I think it is the simplicity and self sufficiency of it all that makes it such a good antidote to work and our day to day lives. You really are pulling the strings. You can’t jump off, take a break or rely on anyone else. You have to deal with what is thrown at you. Right there. Right then.
So why the blog title? A long time ago I worked with the guys at Wings and Waves in New Zealand. We had this printed on our t-shirts. Most of the time not. But some of the time yes. You don’t always get to the hill and find it flyable. You can spend a lot of time and effort getting to that point. Sometimes things can and do go wrong.
