Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true!
The origin of this saying is Aesop’s Fables, the world’s best-known collection of morality tales.
Have you ever made a wish and got what you wanted, only for the reality to fall way short of the expectation?
I imagine that pretty much everyone has. As a creative agency and business owner, there have been times when the pressure and responsibility of business have left me feeling quite overwhelmed and in my quiet contemplative moments I’ve questioned whether I am really doing what makes me happy, with that dark voice in my head saying, “Stop the world I want to get off!” getting louder and louder with every moment. I doubt very much that I am alone in my thinking. Many of us believe there is something beyond what we are doing right now that will make us happier – alas the grass always appears to be greener.
And now…the world does indeed appear to have stopped. The very thing we took for granted, our liberty, stripped away from us literally overnight, but has it, really? The World has changed and possibly won’t ever be the same again. What about us? Have we changed too, either in our behaviours or in our view of life? Has this new way of living channelled our energies into new areas and given us the space and time to recalibrate, be more creative, more wholesome even, and with it gifted a new and more liberating way to be.
It is natural to be concerned about what the future looks like but I am using this time, as are many others, to celebrate the simple things life offers. The benefits of not feeling the need to be in several places at once, no longer dashing around the country, eating on the fly, and the benefits of not racking my brain trying to remember every minute detail for every meeting or conference call I am about to join don’t need explaining. If it sounds like I am complaining about my work I’m not, I love this industry and I love what I do, but sometimes it’s easy to get so lost in the day to day I forget what actually inspired us to set up this fab agency in the first place – to build lasting relationships, create great branding design and work with great people.
We are in the middle of a national trauma and we simply can’t get off the train, yet. When I think too long about it and the impact it has had on so many people, I feel lightheaded, and I feel guilty for the fact that I am actually enjoying this time: I am getting more time with my family and more time to think about the industry that I have invested almost 30 years of my life in. I’m still working, just a little bit less, I have time to learn more about the industries that Soap Creative supports and once this is over, this time will have delivered to me a better understanding of what challenges my clients and prospects will be facing, and I aim to have some pretty neat ideas for them that will add real value, and quickly.
Like the pages of a book caught in the wind, this time will pass.
