Tag / travel

by whyididntwritetoday

The coffee cup that stopped everyone

I was on the bus travelling home this afternoon.

I climbed to the top deck and chose an empty seat.

I found one that I thought looked good, but as I got closer I noticed that there was a discarded coffee cup on the seat.

So, I did the easy thing – walked past it and chose another seat.

I began to notice that everyone else did the same as me.

That one empty coffee cup stood in everyone’s way and everyone walked past it.

Eventually the top deck of the bus filled up.

Then more people got on.

But instead of moving the cup they either went back downstairs or stood.

Finally, a tall man in a long grey jacket got on the bus.

He walked through the aisle, saw the seat and, with a deft flick of his right hand, moved the coffee cup away.

He sat down and enjoyed the rest of his journey in comfort.

How often in life do we take the easiest way possible?

Are the obstacles that stop our progress as bad as we think they are?

by whyididntwritetoday

The quickest way

I’m sure you have this too…but, whenever I ask someone for directions, they’ll usually start their reply with:

“The quickest way is…”

I always wonder why they think I’m in a rush?

Im starting to think that it’s all about the journey.

Too often I’ve missed things en route because I’ve been fixed on the quickest way to the destination.

2018. The year of enjoying the journey.

by whyididntwritetoday

Sleep with people from around the world…

Yesterday I spoke about injecting a bit of humour into the drier parts of business.

But one part of business that can easily be fun and witty is advertising.

I often see this advert on my walk home and every time it’s caught my attention…not just because it’s huge:

20171125_1209172002333225.jpg

(excuse my terrible photography, the post with the camera is covering a wink emoji)

by whyididntwritetoday

Inspirational Places

What does travel do?

It doesn’t just make you skint, doesn’t just make you have to book valuable days off work and it doesn’t just leave you jetlagged & sunburnt.

It opens doors for new experiences that carve out memories you’d never think you’d have.

There’s a world outside your comfort zone and, as a creative, you should take the chances (as and when they come) to broaden your horizons.

tram

When I was younger I didn’t believe in holidays, although I think that was mostly just because I couldn’t afford them.

My reasoning was that it was a waste of money and what was the point in paying for memories? After all you can’t do anything with memories, what’s the point in paying for an experience that will be over soon? Why not just splash the money on material things?

How wrong I was. Sometimes you meet people and you unlock life hacks and secrets that change your thinking for the better.

But that’s the thing…the things you think you know when you’re younger, aren’t always as true as they seem when you look back at them with fresh, older eyes.

So if you feel a bit stuck, as if you can’t find inspiration anywhere you should step outside your door and find a plane going somewhere you like the sound of.

The featured image is of the city of Budapest. A place full of beauty, adventure and dangerously good wine.

by whyididntwritetoday

Departure

Coffee that’s a little more expensive than you’d like, salty snacks and snatches of faraway conversation.

It’s the departure lounge.

I always find departure lounges weird. 

Apart from the staff they’re such temporary places.

No one wants to be here, and even when they find themselves here they just wish time away.

I wonder how productive everyone could be if they made use of the time they wished away?

by whyididntwritetoday

Procrastination…the doom of a cyber generation.

When many bloggers or cyber writers tackle a theme they start off by pasting the dictionary definition of their topic…why!? Do they think their audience is too silly to know what the word means? Did they not know what it meant themselves? Or, are they just using it as a springboard to help their lazy ass get a creative flow going? My apologies, to quote many a millennial…’rant over’. Let’s get on with the blog post…

Procrastination
prə(ʊ)ˌkrastɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n/
noun

  1. the action of delaying or postponing something.
    “your first tip is to avoid procrastination”

In case you’ve not guessed this one is about procrastination, and for as long as I’ve tried to write creatively procrastination has been the main reason why I’ve not been writing. It’s such an easy thing to do, and an easy trap to fall into…I’ll sit there at my desk, ready to launch a full blown verbal assault on a blank word document, and then suddenly I’ll start to wonder what year Die Hard was released or what happened to an old footballer I used to like once he’d retired, or perhaps I’ll start to wonder how long it would take to fly to Mars in a rocket.

And thus that catalyst for procrastination ‘Google’ will open and away my hours will wile, access to information is great…but it sure as hell can shut the doorway of productivity at times.

Asides from maintaining focus, there’s not really a known cure for procrastination is there? Very few doctors seem to be trained in dealing with it, and listening to TED talks about it only further exacerbates the issue in the first place.

I guess it says a lot for how advanced the human mind is now that we have enough time for such a level of reflection that it can take us away from the present so easily. I mean back in the day, when cavemen and women danced across the far corners of the Earth, I’m pretty sure procrastination must have been nigh on impossible.

The fear of a T-Rex making me into a candlelit dinner for one would certainly keep my ass in check and stop me from googling the full cast and crew of an episode of ‘Friends’ to see if the bit part actor I thought I saw was actually in it!

But yet, as our lives and the worlds around us become more and more complicated, the more scope there is for delaying what you want to do.

So, today I didn’t write because I was procrastinating and, after thinking about cooking dinner for ages, decided to alert the nearest pizza merchant of my hunger and ask them to deliver their product forthwith.

I guess the secret to stop procrastination and maximise productivity would be to make sure I find the right project. One that I simply can’t put down, one that keeps me awake with flowing words until the wee hours. Mind abuzz with ideas.

But…finding that project…that’s the challenge.