The DO Lectures - Where are you now?

Hi there

I am in my office in central London, my career as a writer is about to begin.

I had landed a job at the world’s most creative advertising agency at the time.

I am 21 years old. Clueless, but hungry. (CBH)

- My hunger came from 150 interviews of people saying I wasn’t good enough.
- It came from being unemployed for a year and a half.
- Plus, I had enough of eating beans on toast every day.

On day one, I drew an odd-looking house with a long driveway with trees on either side. I folded that piece of paper and tucked it into the top drawer of my desk.

I looked at it every day.
On bad days.
On good days.

That drawing became my North Star.

I loved the next decade or so. I was lucky enough to be working with the huge talent – Ajab Samarai Singh. There was no way we were going back to being unemployed.

We did well.

But each day, I looked at my drawing. And each day, it got bigger. In my head, it was becoming as big as the 96 sheet posters I was writing words for.

15 years later, Clare and I decided we would move back to Wales.

We saw a lot of houses. None of them were quite right.

Then one day, we went to see a house.

As I drove up to the entrance I stopped the car. There it was. I could not quite believe what I was seeing.

A carbon copy of my drawing.

We made an offer. It was accepted. We left London to start a new life back in Wales.

That moment taught me this life lesson.

1. The power of a picture in your head.

Our imagination is so powerful.

But unfortunately, most of us let our imagination work on the wrong things:

- Worry.
- What could go wrong.
- You know, that stuff.

The lesson here for me is that the imagination works best in pictures.

And it works best if you keep reminding it.

Imagination is not magic – it’s practice.

There is a point where the subconscious gets the message. Then it sets about making it happen.

What was once considered Woo-Woo is now Brain Science you can hear about on almost every podcast you listen to.

I love this from Essentialism – Greg McKeown.

The story of how Michael Phelps used imagination.

Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman, taught him to mentally rehearse every detail of his races.

Each night before bed and every morning after waking, Phelps would close his eyes and imagine himself performing the perfect race. He would visualize every aspect: the feel of the water, the sound of the starting buzzer, his strokes, turns, and even how he would finish.

This visualisation was so vivid that Phelps referred to it as watching “the video” in his mind.

This practice proved critical during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the 200-meter butterfly race, Phelps’ goggles filled with water early on, leaving him essentially blind. Despite this setback, he relied on the “video” he’d played in his mind countless times.

He stayed calm, trusted his muscle memory, and followed the plan he had rehearsed. Phelps not only completed the race flawlessly but also broke a world record, all without being able to see.

This speaks to me about the power of our imagination.

Why this matters?

Sometimes in life, we can feel a little stuck.

And it isn’t always clear how to get unstuck.

The gap between where you are now, and where you want to be seems just too BIG.

So, you don’t even try.

And that is why most people stay stuck.

My advice is to get your imagination working for you, not against you.