Just found this group of photos I took when I was in Sydney last month. Its the ferry journey from Balmain to the city – a journey I used to do daily – and yet I never really realised how special it was until I stopped being able to do it with ease.
I guess complacence is the cause for many of the things we do in life – both positive and negative – and whilst I am very, very, very happy with the choices I’ve made [including leaving Australia which got right on my tits at times] I do know that sometime in the future I will again call ‘Australia home’ even though [1] I doubt I’ll be involved in a company that only deals with AUS/NZ and [2] the reality is that wherever Jill is, I’m happy. [And I mean that, it’s not just to impress the ‘ladies’]
So what has this got to do with anything?
Well not much … but it does sort of carry on from the theme I talked about a week or so ago, where too many people seem to be settling for ‘mid-level happiness’ rather than follow the things that truly excite, exhilarate, interest and fascinate them.
Of course I understand why this happens [Hell, it’s happened to me too at various points in my life and will probably happen again, especially as I get older with even greater responsibilities] but the thing I keep reminding myself is that my parents wanted me to experience life, rather than a lifestyle and having followed this philosophy for as long as I can remember – making some astoundingly wonderful fuckups and the odd moment of accidental genius along the way – I couldn’t agree with them more.
I’ve said this many times but I do believe planners – and anyone really involved in communication – need to experience life to be able to relate to life because if they don’t do that, then the choices made are often more to do with personal judgement / experiences than what the consumer really feels/needs/wants … resulting in a screwed up situation for everyone.
Yes it is scary to let go of ‘certainty’ … but if we remind ourselves that doesn’t mean we have to let go forever [like me and the Balmain Ferry], then maybe we can go out and do something exciting again. Besides, nothing great happens if you just follow ‘average’. 🙂
PS: Mr M … your ‘revenge’ post has been written and will be up tomorrow!