Life purpose defined in 20 minutes (or so)

In mid-December I had the good fortune to read a great post by Evelyn Rodriguez that landed me at Steve Pavlina’s blog. He’s an interesting chap, had a few adventures and generated a fair amount of wisdom.

Whilst mulling over the idea of defining my life purpose in 20 minutes I paused to clock his:

Steve’s purpose in life is:
to live consciously and courageously;
to enjoy, increase, and share peace, energy, passion, and wealth;
to resonate with love and compassion;
to awaken the great spirits within others;
and to fully embrace this present moment.

I took the test and it took me somewhat longer but I stuck to the task nonetheless on the basis that I would reward myself with a late-night brandy on completion. I didn’t end up crying with pure emotion as Steve suggested I would once the crud was cleared and focus found. I did however, lean back, smile and pour the brandy after number 76.

So here it is:

My purpose in life is to..

To create and share in joy, adventures and wisdom with those that love and respect life and living, past and present, with good grace, style, humour and music.

I’ve had a good few weeks to go about my everyday business and life with this in mind and yes.. it certainly has helped me to enter 2007 with a new and very positive perspective.

James Dyson on marketing and truth

I’ve been storing wisdom in Soho Notes for ages and so some of it will make it’s way on to the blog. Probably long after the rest of the chatterati have had their say.

One piece in The Independent recently that fits with much of where my work-related thinking is at came from James Dyson.

In a piece entitled Why bother with advertising if you can get editorial? he set out a few useful points in relation to the purpose of advertising going forwards..

Lessons/learnings paraphrased:

Dyson observes that advertising should only concern itself with truth and comparison (of technical features).

Engineering and design skills are more important than communications – get the product right before the ad campaign.

Design metrics – “The important thing for me as a designer is that people enjoy using my product and think that it works well and that it’s their first choice”

Nice and simple.