Brands, Branding, Association. ummm

I like brands and logos. I’ve designed some. I appreciate clever ones, pretty ones, beautifully designed ones. I like knowing what I can expect. Rachel Zoe is a good example. I know her style, I like it and I know her quality. Free People, I like the name, I know the style and I can expect a standard of quality there as well. I don’t only buy designer brands, but I like that they exist.

I also know that it takes a certain amount of time and staying power and consistency to be a brand that is known and widely recognized.

Creating a brand sort of stresses me out. It seems so permanent. Like a tattoo. My favorite thing about my website at the moment is that I can change it.

If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that my mind changes as my life changes. Trends change, life style, even values change. I used to buy Jif peanut butter. Now that I know about vegetable oils and particularly the hydrogenated ones, I only buy the kind with peanuts and salt. I started buying Adams before there were other choices because it had no sugar or other ingredients. Now I know that my instincts were right and why., I usually buy the best priced version.

Knowing everything is changing makes consistency challenging. It makes branding a bit of a crap shoot. Kudos to brands that have spanned the decades.

Picking out a brand for myself requires me to know myself. So thank you blogging, because I think answering questions like this one, get me thinking. Who am I ? What do I care about? What do I like? What do I want to be associated with?

Before I knew anything about baseball I wore a Yankees ball cap.. I liked the logo design. I had never sat through even one baseball game in my life. When my Red Socks loving husband came along he quickly set me straight. Has anyone seen that movie Fever Pitch? It was like that.

Sometimes we get ourselves associated for a variety of reasons. In a world of quick judgement, it feels worrisome. I can’t change snap judgement or misunderstandings but I can work on self awareness. I can ask better questions and get to know more specifically what I’m about.

For me this blog question has me wanting to change my website again…

We are listening to Paul Chek as we drive to a new coffee place in a town called Old Saybrook. Paul is talking about knowing ourselves. Did you guess that?

He and the guy he’s interviewing (Jerry something) are trading stories about when they stopped living a corporate driven life and started doing their careers from a more soul centered perspective. It seems that between the prompt today and this podcast, I’m getting a little nod to keep going.

Is how I’m interpreting my morning.

More unpredicted rain. I think this is a thing.

I don’t really mind rain if I’m dressed for it. The weather people are sort of funny. They can’t hide their own shock and dismay first thing in the morning. They are as close to saying : “This is terrible! It’s not going to let up! It’s going to pour ALL freaking day!” as any news people I’ve ever heard. Next time this happens I’ll include a direct quote. Really it appears to be most people’s general feeling, which I find interesting since rain and weather are, from what I see, part of living in New England?

Enough about the rain.

I just got up and moved from the comfortable chairs to a quiet work area so I wouldn’t be distracted. Yet, another loud talker has just. joined this previously quiet table. If l wasn’t trying to think, I might be entertained.

Context and ratio are important to me. I’ve said this before, good aesthetics make me happy. The opposite makes me a little anxious. Distracted is a good word.. This other loud talker has switched to an embarrassing topic, her voice has dropped. Oh wait back to things she likes us to know. (I’m guessing based on her decibel). Now something has burned in the kitchen. The smell of burn mixed with cinnamon fills the whole coffee shop.

I am soooo distracted! G is happily tuning out all of it. His super power. I’m usually entertained, but here I was hoping to have some deep thoughts.

I feel like this time away from home (CA), is going to help me know myself better.

I like that I’m less worried about being myself. I still want to be respectful, but I’m not as influenced by the idea that what everyone else’s is doing is correct and what I’m doing is incorrect, or even just inferior by comparison. As a human, my comparison driven mind wants to kick in, but I seem to have turned a corner with those old ‘Im wrong’ beliefs.

I prefer my way. I’m used to it. I love my own ideas. I love my taste. Paul Chek says we are the only ones who we will ever really know… He suggests that we need to let go of the things that we think are our faults, and find a way to love ourself.

I’m all for this, but I didn’t grow up knowing how. Learning to pay attention. Slowing down and spending moments not resisting my own soul is pretty important. Just another way to care about my personal regulated state. I’m all about this. It’s why I’m here.

What CAN I do more of ? ? ?

What do I WANT to do more of? What exactly are we wondering here?

Am I making a list of possible options or unlimited opportunities? I hope it’s not a should list because again, I’m not inviting guilt into my life after sweeping it out.

What COULD I do? My best .

The word ‘could ‘makes it sound like I’m not already doing something I should be doing.

I could and can do more of the best I can do in every situation. That’s all any of us CAN do.

Would I find it helpful to list everything I wish I could be doing or things I could do but wouldn’t want to? Like complain or things I kind of want to do like eat a lot more pastries and cookies and pizza. I could do more of so many things. but what do I WANT to do more of?

That’s a better question for me today.

Gratitude is powerful.

Do you know this quote? Anytime I get lost in struggle and can’t find my way back to regulation I always get nudged back toward the power of thankfulness.

It’s advice I have heard often and it’s one that I return to again and again. Spending a few minutes every morning as I’m waking up and every evening as I’m falling asleep acknowledging the things I’m grateful for, truly elevates my life whereever I find myself.

Any amount of enthusiasm will get me up and moving.

Wanting, Desire. A need will drive me.

One time I read a book about how to spin wool into yarn. The book had beautiful pictures and well written instruction. The yarn spinning was just one chapter. It also showed weaving and dying and other fiber arts. I checked this same book out from the library over and over. The night I read about how to spin it was late. Everyone was long asleep except the baby. The instructions told me to buy a drop spindle and where I might find one. It said to get some wool and what kind was best for a beginner.

Then it said if you had to try it immediately, to get a pencil, a potato and some cotton from the top of a vitamin bottle.

I may have been exhausted from a full day with little kids and being up with a baby, but I was up and searching in the dark for cotton and a potato.

By morning I had taught myself to spin. Not one bit tired, I NEEDED to find and acquire a drop spindle and some yarn.

I had energy to do the busy life and make yarn.

I can’t answer this because it changes.

Looking back I can see myself at different ages completely in love with so many different albums.

When I love something I really really LOVE it. I can’t help this, I might play the same music over and over and over (I read books and watch movies again and again too). I can look back with such fondness on so many of my old favorites and easily be taken back in time by a song. Its fun to revisit music from a different perspective. Lately I’m on playlists and presently between obsessions.

Music, my life soundtrack. I could make a list, but it would be long