80beans

Running

I’m reading a memoir by Haruki Murakami af the moment, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I came across this interesting thought:

Sometimes I run fast when I feel like it, but if I increase the pace I shorten the amount of time I run, the point being to let the exhilaration I feel at the end of each run carry over to the next day. This is the same sort of tack I find necessary when writing a novel. I stop every day right at the point where I feel I can write more. Do that and the next day’s work goes suprisingly smoothly.  I think Ernest Hemingway did something like that. To keep on going you have to keep up the rhythm. This is the important thing for longterm projects. Once you set the pace, the rest will follow. The problem is getting the flywheel to at a set speed – and to get to that point takes as much concentration and effort as you can manage.

We’re working on a few very longterm projects and it’s always a problem to keep making steady progress during all phases. Especially in the middle when the excitement level goes down and the goal seems to be far away. I’m going to try this idea and report back about it later.

Book: It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be

Complete title: “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be: The World’s Best Selling Book”.

Boris gave me this book at his goodbye party, thrown because of his departure as chairman of IPAN. He made me promise to send him an e-mail about how I liked (or disliked) the book. I guess a blogpost will work just as well.

Author Paul Arden wrote a nice little book (I read it in just over an hour) about setting goals, making mistakes and exceeding yourself, whilst being creative in business. It all basically boils down to knowing the right people and taking chances (what else is new?). He uses the advertising industry to project his ideas on, but they apply to business in general. The design of the book is great, especially the typography done by Roger Kennedy of Saatchi & Saatchi.

Reading the book wasn’t a life changing experience for me, but it was amusing and gave me some new insights (but hey, don’t all books?). For $7.95 it’s worth the money.

You can get this book at Amazon.