Over the last year or so I iPhone has subtly moved from its already idolatrous position on my bedside table to actually just staying on my bed with me as I sleep.  How is that for intimate?

Aside from the potential health issues that we don’t fully understand yet I actually find it pretty embarrassing to say that I don’t want it to be out of reach for even 1 minute of my life!  Then in the morning, I check Facebook, Twitter and worst still Emails before even thinking, praying or looking out the window.

I think this is bad for my health, wellbeing, quality of sleep and social life, I am trying to change.

I just read 35% of us check our phones before getting out of bed in the morning so at least I am in good company

I think sucking in what is going on ‘out there’ on Facebook, Twitter and Emails before even thinking in the morning is a terrible way to set the vision for who I want to be that day, creating a reactive rather than proactive posture.

In my lucid waking up state is when I often think most creatively, peoples names pop into my head, or I remember a dream I had which leads to an Idea.  This all happens before I clothe myself with Logic, lifes limitations and most of all the outside impetus of what the rest of my world wants me to do on that day.

2 mornings ago I woke up after dreaming that Bill Gates had invested heavily into @giveyUK.

After being mortified when realising that it wasn’t actually real I actually thought “Well he is a philanthropist now and he is losing his old tech battle to Apple so why not try and get hold of him?” That Is what I am attempting, So Bill if you are reading I would love to talk about working together

Anyway the point is from the moment you get up and out of your room the world is going to bombard you hard with “stuff” you gotta do, buy and be so why trade in that pure creative 15 minutes in the morning for the sake of reading another flipping Groupon email?

This blew me away!

It is like no-one told this guy the rules of playing the guitar.

He has just looked at it and in a caveman type way just thought ‘how can I get sound (value) out of this thing.’

Looking holistically at the instrument he has created something beautiful that others confined by the convention or prior art would not have seen or been able to create.

He would have looked like an IDIOT when experimenting and practising! HAHA, but now he is an inspiring badass!

The world is changing FAST. Mobile, Social and Local are the dominant change agents and so many brands I work with are struggling to engage and monetise new and existing customers even though they still have strong brands.

I believe the key to change management is looking more holistically and objectively at the business assets and unlearning the platforms and tools and strategies that have been implemented until now.

This means getting back to basics, putting the relationship of the consumer and the brand in the centre and then TOTALLY rethinking the touch points used to engage and then monetise that customer.

If your brand doesn’t manage to decouple itself from the platform it is used to being delivered on then I fear for its survival over the next 5 years.

Some clean chirpy startup will probably come in and eat your lunch!

Thanks @DHS for showing me the music.

I don’t watch any TV but somehow I have become shamefully addicted to X factor.

I have been thinking about it and I think the real reason deep down is that I am jealous of the contestants.

Not that they are on TV etc but that they are taking a REAL risk on their musical dreams, dreams that run deep in them that they have held for years.

I am good at risk taking in other spaces but music is one I hold dear and thus scares me more to make myself vulnerable.

We all watch, read or listen to stuff to switch off which is pretty normal and probably restful and helping keep us balanced.

I guess the danger is if we live our dreams through others we are not actually writing or telling our story at all. 

I am challenging myself to go and write or practise after I watch X factor so I don’t just become a stuffed monkey!

PS. Misha B is obviously the winner

(I just found this post in my drafts from a year ago but seems fitting with recent posts, bit rambly so sorry about that but here it is……..)

Every day we have to make decisions about how to invest our lives and which commodities to use.

“Where your treasure is, your heart will be also”

If we are in the minority world that is privileged enough to look after our duties each day and still have spare resources we have to decide where to invest them.

Some invest mainly into their wardrobes, some into their bellies and some to the bettering of others lives.

But before we chose where to invest our surplus we have to choose which commodity is more valuable to keep in storage to give away.

As I see it there are 3 options

- Love Time

- Occupational Time

- Money

By love time I mean time spent with people to value them and invest purely in the relationship regardless of any wider impact or what you have to give or gain. Valuing people as Human BEINGS, For me this would be my family, my Godson, my housemates and close friends and others in my community that might need some love time.

By occupational time I mean contributing the thing that you are good at. For me this would be spending time doing stuff that is obviously work but I don’t get paid for it like looking through someones accounts, startup idea, speaking at a school or building something for someone Free of Charge, I call this putting value on Human DOINGS.

By Money I mean cold hard earned cash

I don’t know the answer to this and It is probably a silly idea in Hindsight to try to separate them out as they are not mutually exclusive, however I do know that the less functional of a reason that we maintain a relationship the deeper and purer it seems to be.

CONCLUSION : There is value in us as beings, there is also value in the ‘doing’ skills we have, and obvious value in the money we are stewarding.  The challenge it seems is in the balance.

RAMBLE OVER …….PHEW!

Since I was 18 I have been diligently making monthly video diaries and started filming them from my Mac when I was 21.

2 days ago I realised stupid ‘Time Machine’ just overrides the oldest stuff on your harddisk if it is full rather than alerting you that it is full!

NIGHTMARE! 3 years of music and diary lost!

It really threw me, I felt like I had a part of me stolen by technology (or more reasonably by my technological incompetence.)

Anyway, it got me thinking about living in the moment.

In the US a couple of weeks ago my dear friend and great photographer  Steve Booker was snapping away at the Grand Canyon and after about the 50th snap I just said “Steve; put the camera down mate, suck it up for a minute.” He looked at me, Smiled and agreed.

I don’t think we will look back and regret not taking the 50th photo but we may regret not quite taking as deep a breathe as we could have done……

When our children were singing their first song to us,

When the sky went all pink and orange and purple, in that unrealistic way it sometimes does,

When someone looked us in the eye and said that they loved us for the first time.

Or when are parents were in their final days of life.

People often ask me how I manage to juggle so many different things in my head and appear not to get stressed out and I always say the same which is that I try not to think about the past or the future when I am with people but attempt to give myself fully to the moment that I am with them.

This might sound a little Poncy or superspiritual to you but I think it is simple.

Do well with what is in front of you in this moment; to the best of your ability.

What is infront of you is often a person.

That person will always be better off if they get the WHOLE of you for that moment than if they get a distracted shell of you.

—— RAMBLE OVER SORRY ——

SUMMARY : Living fully in the moment, aiming to love for a few minutes at a time is the only safe way to live.

ACCOUNTABILITY: If I don’t act this way with you, please pull me up on it, I think its flipping important.