By Isabelle Johnson

Do something…

After Ben the Buddhist told us about the book the Chimp Paradox (which I have read its by Dr Steve Peters, a sports psychologist) I looked at other mental health books. BTW as well as the chimp there are goblins and gremlins who are harder to deal with. 

I was talking about Ben the Buddhist’s talk to someone who knows a lot about how to deal with stress. Another book worth reading is ‘Everything is F*cked, a book about hope’ by Mark Manson. He says ‘Everything is fucked. And hope is the cause and effect of that fuckedness.’ That sounds hopeless but it isn’t. He says just because everything appears to be a mess doesn’t mean you have to be one.

I thought this was good advice as the picture Marc painted of dog eat dog in his talk about the advertising industry sounded stressful to me. Mark Manson shows us how to avoid the dark side in ourselves (that is what it says on the back cover). So I am going to try to find time to read this too as advertising is known for being a stressful industry.

Mark Manson says that wanting always to find happiness only makes us unhappier. He is obviously a very clever guy. This book is a follow up to ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck’ which was a megabestsellar. Great book.

He has also written an article called ‘The “Do Something” principle. This is all about how just doing something is motivating. He says that people only commit to action if they feel a certain level of motivation. And they only feel motivation when they feel an emotional inspiration.

He says inspiration, motivation, action is an endless loop. 

And if you know this you can use it when you feel stuck and stressed. By taking action which leads to inspiration which leads to motivation.

It all sounds a bit complicated but he says the best way to get motivated for just about anything is to ‘Do Something’. I think that will be useful with this course as there will be times when we work on briefs that ideas don’t come. But if we just start even writing ideas soon inspiration will kick in and we will be motivated. 

Mark Manson says you can become successful at something without knowing what you are doing. You can become successful without having much talent. But you can never ever become successful without taking action.

I will remember that.