It has
been an incredibly long time since I’ve last blogged, let’s see if this post
can get me back into the swing of things…..
A lot has
been going on that has be awesome fun. This post follows on from some self
reflection and a course that I’m currently on that’s allowing me to put a lot
of thought into practice.
I’m three
weeks into an Account Planning Group course that focuses on building the
‘leaders of tomorrow’. The first week’s session was led by Mia Kennedy
(Former Head of Planning at AMV turned expert Executive Coach, Trainer and
Facilitator) who helped us to understand our natural strengths of
which mine were (according to https://www.viame.org/survey/Account/Register,
so obviously shouldn’t be taken too literally):
#1 Creativity
#2 Curiosity
#3 Gratitude
#4 Hope
#5 Bravery
….. how we can then leverage these core natural
strengths to the best of our ability and understand others strengths in order
to accompany them in the best possible way. From understanding this it helps
you know where you stand among others and how you can develop yourself to
become the best you can. The group that is part of these sessions is really
good and has led to some really interesting conversations on from this first
session.
The second session was led by Alison Chadwick
(Executive Coach and former Director of BBDO University) and her session built
on from Mia’s in the sense that the discussion moved onto emotional
intelligence. From the understanding of who we are, how we operate and can
naturally develop ourselves, how this then influences others, how our different
motivations drive us to behave and how we can adapt or at least be aware of how
we can compliment these differences…… both were very thought provoking.
For the third meet up we are having a session on
making the most of your creativity. In preparation for this we need to put an
advertisement together for ourselves on one side of A3 paper.
….. This follows on nicely from self reflection and
the past two sessions focusing on understanding yourself and others, as well as
their perception of you.
I have always been pretty aware of what motivates me,
how I live my life, what makes me happy and what I want to achieve so I found
this to be an appealing challenge that made me want to blog about it. To think
about it a bit more:
When I look back to my childhood and speak to my
parents I was always a really happy child but never fit into the school system,
I in-fact got tested for ADHD and hearing problems a fair few times. As my Dad
said their rationale for why I never did what people asked me to do was
probably because I couldn't hear them….. turned out I could hear
fine, I just didn’t see why I had to do it.
Later on I must have realised the awkwardness I showed
through the beginning of primary school wasn't going to get me
anywhere, there was a reason I had to do it and changed the approach after my
parents had repeatedly been told I was a ‘difficult child’. One of my school
reports actually stated ‘Matthew is an anomaly’, which can’t be a good thing at
9 years old…… instead I must have understood that if I was seen to be the most
well behaved child I could get away with a lot more, while still being myself (I
realise this is making me sound pretty strange, but if you can’t be honest then
what’s the point). This was probably due to all the things Alison’s was
discussing around understanding how different people are and how you need to
behave in order to have a happy relationship….. thankfully 9 year old me learnt
that.
Something that collided nicely with learning this was
going to Disney Land when I was 9 and Disney World when I was 11. My perception
of what a good day was had changed, the parks inspired me even more than Disney
programming had.
From 11 I wanted to run The Walt Disney Company, I
know this sounds like an odd childhood dream. It sparked the determination
within me. This was me at 11, I’ve learnt a lot more since then having worked
at The Walt Disney Company when I was 19/ 20, I realised
it wasn't what I wanted and I wanted to make my own mark.
Anyway I still have my unbridled determination to do
whatever I want to do, I’m yet to realise the full potential of what this can
lead to but more than happy with the journey, therefore with all this insight
it was clear what my creative stimulus was to build an advert for myself:
Number 1 – When you have a good day, don’t just settle
for that. I never want to accept enough is enough from something, I believe
there’s always more fun you can have.
Number 2 – Not doing things the way others always
believe you should. You know what is best for you, go for that, let loose and
enjoy the ride.
Taking these two principles into consideration of how
I have been since I was a child and how I plan to continue to get what I want
from life I developed the advert below to represent me:
The image represents the two sides of my personality,
the fact that I will just say what the fuck, if I’m ever perceived as a goodie
two shoes it probably is an act. The line refers to the fact that life is short
and you should do whatever you want, even if that scare’s you as there’s no
point settling for the status quo. It also refers to the determination of not
wanting to just be average/ good at what you do…. Surely you should always try
to be the best, so what if you fail, at least you tried.
Categories:
Personal Development
