The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

What once I considered a waste of TV/Gaming/Eating time, now I prioritise it.

I take client calls on walks.
I do team catch-ups on walks.
I do a lot of my work thinking time on walks.
Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk.

And the benefits of this approach to life are plentiful.

I’m healthier – physically and mentally.
I have a skin tone that no longer makes me look like an anemic Dracula.
And I have got to connect more to the places I live and work.

I am not suggesting in any way others need to be doing this, just highlighting how it has had a lifechanging effect on me.

But one of the things I have really got to appreciate with walking is seeing the communities and streets around where I live and how – every now and then – you come across something that makes me stop walking and stare.

This is one of them …

Someone did that.

Someone decided to do that.

To make a little part of the pavement, a jewel.

And I have no idea why … and I have no idea who … but I love someone did.

Not just because they took the time, but they thought is was worth the time.

And that’s the thing I worry about where we’re heading.

Because everything is seemingly evaluated and valued by greatest and fastest ROI.

We’re seeing companies do it with their endless mergers and acquisitions.
We’re seeing tech firms do it with their blinkered focus on optimisation over possibility..
And we’re seeing governments do it with their disregard of the arts in favour of business.

And while, of course, money is hugely important … when the impact and value on how society feels and interacts is disregarded, the economic benefit ends up being even more short-term.

Some people won’t care.

Some people are only focused on what they can get out of something rather than what they can give or enable for someone else.

Which is why I’m so grateful to whoever made this piece of literal street art.

Because it’s far more than just decorating a bit of the pavement, it’s a reminder of the choice we have. Because while the ‘economically functional’ may be easier, cheaper, faster and more convenient, its the stuff that you know is born from someone’s passion that leaves the most lasting impression.

Talking of passion, I’m away next week in one of my favorite places in the World, Vietnam.

[I say that, it all depends on what the doctors say about my eye at today’s check up. Eek]

It’s exciting for 3 reasons.

1. I’ve not been there for years.
2. It’s where I helped create the ‘4×4 on 2 wheels‘.
2. It means that after 3 months of pain, my eye is doing well enough to travel again.

And before you ask, it is for work – even though I get to see friends there at the same time.

So while I’m off experiencing the place with the most infectious spirit, unstoppable energy and relentless optimism in Asia, I hope you have a week finding and celebrating the things that may make no economic sense to an accountant but make so much sense to your soul.

Because in these days of beige and boring, creativity is not so much about art, but an act of rebellion on behalf of the human spirit.