I’ve had a day at home today and done a few interesting things. One was to do an Instinctive Drivers questionnaire which looks at what my natural drivers, ways of thinking and methods are. Many call this someone’s ‘flow’. When it feels easy. When it feels instinctual. The other things I did is sat and listen to a commencement address by Neil Gaiman to the University of the Arts. And once again it made me think about my life and what I’m doing and where I’m heading. So here for your enjoyment is Neil’s commencement address.

I’ll let Neil speak for himself but here’s some of the things I found challenging or instructive or inspiring (my words) …

• If you are naive or don’t know things and hence don’t know things are impossible then that’s a good thing as then it’s easier to do as you’re not bound by other people’s expectations or rules or paradigms
• Am I settling ? Doing what I have to do before doing what I want to do ? (People like Neil and Steve Jobs sound very similar. they love what they do. It doesn’t feel like work. What is that for me ?)
  
• Imagine where you want to be – like a distant mountain. As long as you are walking towards the mountain then you’re on the track and that’s OK.
• Everyone will face the problems of disappointment, failure and disillusionment – they are part of the journey. So learning how to deal with these and get over them is part of the journey too
  
• Be wise and if you can’t be wise, then pretend you are wise and do what they would do !
• Enjoy the journey. seriously – don’t worry. Enjoy the journey.

Challenge: How does this encourage, inspire or challenge you ?