Clarity, connection, and 50 miles of swimming.

This summer, I’ve had an unusual opportunity.

3 months of space to step back from the hurricane of 17 hectic and wildly enjoyable years in the marketing services industry. 

Some time to stop, think, and gain clarity.

It’s been an extraordinary experience that has challenged and refreshed me, like nothing I’ve experienced for a while.

Right now, I am standing on the edge of a deep dive back into the world of work. But this time in a different way – under my own steam, at my own risk, and with my own chance to set the direction.

It’s a slightly scary feeling, and an exhilarating one.

I am looking forward to working in a different way, with different goals, challenges and knowledge gaps. It’s the right time for me to make this kind of change.

As I look at those challenge I know I am returning to my craft with a new clarity and a sense of resolve that is difficult to achieve in a world full of opportunity and distraction.

So: what on earth have I been doing all this time?

1.   Doing favours, asking for favours

This summer I’ve been able to take some time to trawl the back catalogue of my working life, and to spend some time talking, and most importantly really listening, to an incredibly diverse range of people. Many of them are people I’ve taken a bit of time to help over the years in little, insignificant ways, or who have previously done the same for me.

People have been universally supportive, generous and helpful, and some of them extraordinarily so. That’s helpful in obvious ways – it’s sharpened my perspective and created some great opportunities. But it also created a positive energy that I’ve been determined to pass on. The world now seems a more fertile place to me, because it is full of brilliant people ready to help each other in the endeavours.

Generosity is important, and it’s essential to make a space for it. It’s easy to become driven by competitiveness, which gives a kind of energy, and can help to pay the bills. But so much more opportunity, and energy, comes from taking the time to be generous.

2.   Swimming, a lot

I’m fortunate enough to live in an amazing town with an incredible freshwater pool, a lively leisure centre, and a 15 minute drive to the sea; and to have friends around the country who live by other bits of the sea. I’ve been swimming, a lot. I haven’t really been counting, but it could even be up to 50 miles of swimming.

For me, the many and diverse miles of swimming this summer, leavened with a little time to relax, have made me feel like a literally different person. I am fitter, calmer, and clearer. Health, physical and mental, gives clarity. I know this is not easy for everyone to come by, whether the enemy is time, or personal health challenges. It will certainly need a lot of determination and a bit of luck for me to hang onto it. But I am going to do my best.

It’s great that culture has taken a swing towards health and towards mindfulness, and that many great businesses have embraced this too. But too often it still feels as if work and health were some kind of debit & credit system. They have to pull in the same direction, because good work and feeling good are two sides of the same coin.

3.   Stuck in a book

Gradually, I am trying to write a book. It will certainly take me a while. But as a result, this summer I’ve spent a fair amount of time in a place I thought I would never see again – the library. The capacity of that kind of space to stretch and bend your thoughts is surprising. I’ve found the same kind of feeling in the park, in cafes, on trains - anywhere I can have my nose in a book.

I’ve had some great conversations this summer, but also some long periods of time alone, reading and thinking. That time alone with your thoughts can be hard. But it’s also an important part of life, and for me it has been a great source of clarity. In particular in my particular field of interest and research - the effects of changes in media technology on society - which could hardly be more prone to collective panic. Some time for proper thought is essential, especially if your perspectives are your livelihood.

The level of connection we have – as a society, as an industry, as an economy – is an incredible achievement and an amazing opportunity. But it’s important that in the thirst for communication, for information, and even for collaboration that we don’t lose the importance of time on our own, and time immersed in deep thought.

4.   Focusing on the foundations

If you are going to make brave and different choices – and to be clear my professional risks are tiny in the broader context, but they feel big to me – you’ve got to have strong foundations. For me, that comes from my amazing, crazy family; from my trust in the things I’ve done and the skills and values I’ve built over time; and from all the friends who have helped me and continue to help me.

Those foundations can’t be taken for granted. They need constant investment of time and attention, because those are the things on which everything else is built.

Modern life is no picnic. There are so many big things to be afraid of – political chaos, environmental shifts, economic panic – as well as the many demands of personal financial and emotional responsibility. It’s very easy to make choices out of fear, and in general, those are bad choices, with negative repercussions on others. It’s the foundations that stop you from doing that, so they need constant consolidation.

5.   Creating my own adventure

I’ve created a few things this summer – a fair bit of writing, a few songs, some delicious meals – but in particular I have been creating the way that I want to work for the next few years. The context we live in – our industry, our business, our job title – does so much to shape our behaviours, our attitudes, and our self-identity. Working context sits at the heart of our lives, but is weirdly unspoken about. For me, it’s been time to shape an adventure in which I can shift my context as much as possible.

I’ve been able to spend time with friends who have moved in two or three different directions since I last saw them, and whilst not every adventure has been fruitful, all of them have gained wisdom, experience and knowledge, and very few have regretted their changes in context.

I’ve had an incredible range of experiences in my professional life, but there is so much more out there to explore. I have created something that should enable me to move through far more different contexts – and I am looking forward to the fresh perspective that this new sets of contexts will give me. That's my new business, Hook Strategy, of which more here: (www.hookstrategylimited.com) and another time.

I am beyond fortunate to have had this time. I hope that its effects are long lasting – and that the clarity lingers.

And I hope that anyone who reads this is finding their own sense of clarity too, wherever and whenever works for them.