Hey. How’s things? How are you coping? What’s the temperature (both literally and figuratively)? Things are pretty cray cray and not in a good way. Hold on, though. This too will pass…

I turned 54 last week. Yay! Another trip around the Sun. I had cake and everything, because when you get into the latter stages of the game of life, you should come to a few realisations. Now I am not generally a provider of advice. The reason being is that when people ask you, they seldom act on it. It’s the same with books, films and music: recommendations rarely spawn action. However, as you get older you realise it is one of the greatest privilidges to actually get as far as you have on the path. It’s a priviledge because not everyone gets this far. So yeah, cake is pretty mandatory because there is never any guarantee of your own birthday cake. Secondly, you have to lean into it. Aging, that is. You can do whatever you like but don’t try to be young. You had your time, your youth now comes from attitude, your heart and your head. A former work colleague is in his late 70s but is the youngest person I know because of his attitude, his zest for life. So just lean in. You can’t fight it. So the advice is: eat cake and lean into where you are in life. (Please eat cake in moderation, that’s not advice, that’s wisdom)

I’ve unpacked some stuff I had in storage. Mainly some tech stuff and some books. These are the physical remainders of what I pretentiously call my library. On reflection I must have released around 400 books back into the wild as I simplified my life. Information wants to be free and having books gathering dust on a shelf is such a bad thing, and not just from a cleaning perspective. One book I was really pleased to see was ‘Keep Moving’ by Maggie Smith. In the past it helped move me on from my divorce and other past issues that had been hanging around like psychic baggage. You can’t carry all that baggage through life, there are weight restrictions. I won’t recommend it because you probably won’t read it, anyway.

The remaining books I’ll get to later, but trust me, eat cake, lean into where you are in life and simplify your life. Cast aside the baggage, too. You’ll thank me later.

Just a reminder; Monday is life lists (some self-help nuggets of wisdom), Wednesday is Guilty Pleasures and Friday I’m catching the last rays of civilisation. Why not subscribe and miss nothing.

Also, my blog on digital marketing for creatives is getting a lot of traction these days so if you’re looking for some digital marketing advice for your creative endeavour, I’d love to see you. You can find it here.