I am a very lucky girl because I know some really scrummy and inspiring people. One of these is the gorgeous Corrina Gordon-Barnes from You Inspire Me who helps many, many people turn their passion into a profitable business.

Corrina recently interviewed me about the lack of energy that business owners frequently feel, and what we can do about it. She captured this interview on video, and I am very happy to share this with you today. So I invite you to take a peek…this is actually my first video appearance, and is a great opportunity for those of you who I have not yet had the pleasure to meet to get to know me a little better!

If you would like to join us on the 27th November in London to help burst through that energy block and get things moving again then scoot on over to this page and secure your place!

Interesting fact: Do you know how Corrina and I met? A few years ago, I was working on a project and wanted the domain name youinspireme.co.uk. When I discovered it was taken, I had to go see which clever person had already bagged it. It was love at first sight, and the rest is history! And it’s thanks to Corrina that I met the lovely Rosanna and Blanka, who are co-hosting the workshop! See…amazing what curiosity can bring!

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As I mentioned in my previous blog, I have been going through some pretty exciting major life changes recently. Naturally, the need to create a new path didn’t just happen over night, but in my case, it certainly made itself heard overnight. Or rather, I suddenly heard it overnight…and boy by the time I did hear it, it was SHOUTING!!

It actually happened one weekend in March on a visit to the UK. That weekend I had met up with my lovely friend Rosanna and met, for the first time, another delicious girlie, called Blanka. The lovely Rosanna is a fab and funky yoga teacher and the beautiful Blanka is a goddess of the raw kitchen.

I had no idea that this highly delicious weekend would so dramatically crank up the volume of my inner voice and launch me into a dynamic period of change (as well as the amazing energy of the girls, I swear Blanka’s raw chocolate cake had something to do with this…seriously!). But I easily sensed that the seed of an exciting project was about to germinate. You know that feeling, when something just clicks so nicely that it’s impossible to not turn ideas into action?

Since us three girls have a similar love of funky, healthy, energetic things, we decided to pool our knowledge and skills together to put on a rather delicious workshop to help and inspire other self-employed women to boost their energy, re-ignite their passion for their business, meet like-minded ladies and generally show them a good time.

And so our workshop ‘High Energy for Entrepreneurial Women’ was born. We are holding our first one in London on 27th November 2011 and would love, love, just love you to join us for a day of energizing yoga, delicious vibrant food (all raw!), inspiration for goal setting, a talk on energizing (raw) food plus tips on how to boost your energy.

We are ridiculously excited about this event. During my recent trip to the UK, I had a reminder of how fab these girls are by attending a couple of Rosanna’s yoga classes and sampling more of Blanka’s amazing food (raw vegan cheese and crackers, and raw banoffee pie lingers seductively in my taste bud memory).

Indeed, we are so excited about the possibility of you joining us, we are offering an early bird discount on the price of a ticket, so that you can save a yummy £40 to spend on other things. So scoot on over to this page and check out this event. Make sure you secure your place before Sunday 14th August 2011 to slurp up the special price!

In the meantime I shall do my very best to sample as many of Blanka’s desserts as possible, just to make sure that the perfect selection is made for you. Perhaps some more of that life-changing chocolate cake would be just the rocket fuel you need…

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As you know I love to share my recipes with you, and I usually blog about food that I have recently been eating. Since my last blog, however, I have been eating – or rather drinking and slurping – mostly green smoothies and green raw soups. I am not going to share those with you today as I have done so on a few occasions and I do rather believe there is more to life than smoothies and soups, even if they do make me feel satisfied, energetic, zingy and balanced.

I would like to share, however, a little of what I have been feeding my mind the past week or so. Christoffer has recently bought and devoured the book ‘The 4-hour work week’ by Timothy Ferriss. On his recommendation, I too gobbled it up as quickly as I could and found it most helpful and inspiring.

As the title suggests, the book provides helpful, and often humorous, tips and case studies of how to make your work days more efficient to advance towards the ultimate goal of working just four hours a week, but with at least the same – if not higher- relative income and preferably from remote locations, to enable you to travel the world (if you so wish), or do other fun things while still either working as an employee or as an entrepreneur.

What struck me while reading the book are the similarities between this approach to working-life and Life-Loving food. The initial similarity is the goal. For the 4-hour work week (4HWW) it is to free your self from spending most of your days having to earn money to have instead the time, energy and love to do things that bring you and others joy, such as traveling, learning languages or a new sport, helping others, spending time with your family, or spending your days doing what you are really passionate about e.g making music, art or gardening. To love life.

I have had the pleasure of briefly enjoying the life Ferriss describes while we were in Costa Rica. For a few weeks, Chris and I worked remotely/freelance. We spent a few hours a week working from the hammock in the above photo and the rest of the time learning Spanish, snorkeling, chilling, drinking from fresh coconuts, and planning our lives. I can certainly recommend this as a life-goal!

(If you want a great place to stay in Costa Rica, go to Cashew Hill Jungle Cottages in Puerto Viejo. This is where we stayed for 5 weeks, and had the best time thanks to great owners of this establishment.)

The goal of bringing more Life-Loving Food into your life – apart from the obvious fact that it tastes amazing – is to bring you health, energy and joy. If you spend less time (or preferably, no time) feeling tired, ill, depressed, moody, bloated and blurgh, then you will have time, energy and love to do the things that are actually fun, like the examples in the above paragraph.

Ferriss introduces/reminds us of Pareto’s law. Vilfredo Pareto (1843-1923), a ‘wily and controversial economist-cum-sociologist’, demonstrated the highly uneven distribution of wealth in society where 80% of the wealth and income was possessed by 20% of the population. This 80/20 principle, as it is also known, can be found almost everywhere and in business and even our lives the ratio of output to input is (roughly) 80/20.

Therefore, Ferriss encourages us to look at our businesses to see where the majority of the income comes from. Some may find, for example, that 80% of revenue comes from 20% of their customers. The remaining 80% of customers can be high maintenance and un-profitable and so Ferriss encourages us to spend as little time as possible on these customers, and to certainly not spend money and effort marketing towards them.

It would be interesting to analyse our lives and our health with the same principle in mind. What foods bring me the most energy? (And by this I dont mean calories. I mean energy left over after digestion that can be expended doing other things.) I believe our health (and indeed our lives) reflect not just what we do or eat but what we don’t do or eat.

For example when it comes to physical ill-health (a negative output), someone may find that they are mostly eating healthy food e.g 80% but if they are still filling up on steak and chips, bread (gluten), booze, coffee and dairy products for the remaining 20% they may find that 80% of their discomfort stems from the 20% of the unhealthy foods they are eating. The solution? To cut out those 20% of foods that you may feel you ‘need’ but which don’t actually serve you. It’s amazing that even though we feel that ‘it’s only one cup of coffee, or one bacon sandwich’ how much of an effect it can have on our health; even it is just for one day. I know myself, I have done the same. One cup of coffee out of a whole day’s intake of food and drink (5%) can make me feel 95 % crap! Which is I why I will never drink more than the very occasional sip of coffee.

Similarly we may find that 20% of the people we spend time with (family, friends, partners, customers, bosses or colleagues) bring us 80% of our joy and well-being, while the remaining 80% may be high maintenance people who don’t bring anything positive to your relationship. Surely it is better then to avoid those 80% life-suckers and invest our time and love in the life-enrichening 20% and have time left over for other pursuits!

Something else that struck me as similar is other people’s reactions to both goals. Many people are suspicious of both the 4HWW and Life-Loving (vegan/raw) Foods. ‘Surely if it were that simple everyone would do it!’ I have come across more than my fair share of skeptics who refuse to consider the link between diet and life style with ill health. And not just that, many don’t believe that we can feel fantastic in our body and minds if we give ourselves the chance.

And I myself have been victim to the conditioning that the only option in our work lives it to trudge away putting in all your waking hours in a job you don’t much care for, with retirement as the final goal to bring joy and free time.

Both Life-Loving Foods and the 4HWW are long-term investments in your life, but both can produce immediate results which is both encouraging and motivating. By adding healthy foods to your life and cutting out unhealthy ones (even in small amounts to begin with) will bring some immediate positive results. Likewise, if you go on one of Ferriss’ proposed email diets and ensure you only check your mail twice a day, for example, you will immediately free up both time and mental energy.

In addition, even if you don’t feel you can incorporate 100% Life-Loving Foods in your life, or structure your business or working life as an employee according to the 4HWW, you can still benefit by adopting just a few healthy foods or tips from Ferriss.

So today, I encourage you to look at your life and see what brings you 80% of productivity, good health, love joy and laughter. Focus your energy and time on these things and see if you can make a start to cut out the offending 80% dead weight.

I for one will be dissecting my life to see how I can make it more efficient so that I can do more pleasurable things like writing e-books, and developing other fun things to help others love their lives. Speaking of which my e-book ‘Loving Life – Loving Desserts’ will be available for sale in the next few weeks’ I am super excited and will let you know when I have a little preview for you! In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Check out ‘The 4-hour work week’ by Timothy Ferriss here >> and here:

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When I am abroad I always make the point of visiting health food shops. Not just for supplies to sustain and treat me during my trip, but to see what interesting things I can find that I haven’t seen back home in Sweden.

In one such shop (The Bran Tub in Malvern) I was looking for a present for a friend. And let me admit something to you, dear Reader, Miss Best did a very naughty thing. No, I didn’t stuff my jacket with chocolates and do a runner, what I did was find a funky little gift, bought it, and then liked it so much I decided to keep it for my self!

What was this treasure that my friend would not be getting, you may ask? A tin of tea! Yes, just tea. And not even magic tea, just organic English breakfast tea. And here is the irony – I don’t even like black tea! So why did I deny my friend this gift so that I could keep it for myself if I don’t even intend on drinking the tea? Well, the tin was so eye-catching and inspiring I knew that I just had to have it in my tea cupboard (yes, Miss Best does have an entire cupboard for her tea collection.)

As you can see from the picture above, the tin is rather funky with cool little cartoons created by Mr Scruff himself and this type of art work just tickles me. The tin sits rather well beside my other favorite tea tin which cost far more than a tea tin should, but is rather handy as it contains compartments where you can rather cleverly organise your tea, so as not to confuse your guests when offering them a choice. Though, I must admit it can be overwhelming when you are presented with more than two types of tea to choose from.

The tea is selected and packaged by a small new company called The Make Us a Brew Company which was started by Mr. Scruff, a DJ, producer & cartoonist. Not only is Mr Scruff a lover of music but he is also a lover of tea. Not a tea connoisseur – as he himself points out – but just someone who loves a good brew. He started by having a little tea stall at his gigs and festivals and so many people loved these brews that he decided to make them available for everyone to buy.

All of the teas are organic and ethically sourced with environmentally responsible packaging. I have yet to try the English Breakfast tea that I have hoarded, but I will one day, and will be very happy to share this with tea loving guests. What is a big hit though is the Mint & Chili. At first you think it is just a jolly good cup of peppermint tea, then you get a cheeky little zing from the chili. Mr Scruff also offers us Forest Fruit tea for berry lovers and Big Chill tea, with rooibos, pear & cinnamon, as well as Look Lively!, which Mr S describes as “a rather perky number, with lemongrass, yerba mate & mint”. Sounds yummy to me!

OK, so he does nice tea. In funny packaging. Is that reason enough to be a present hoarder? Well, actually yes, I think so. I am so inspired by people who manage to combine their different passions and skills to create a diverse and creative life. This is something I too am striving after – to work with graphic design on one day and food and nutrition the next. It is also a reminder that our creative output can bring pleasure to people we have never met – or ever likely to meet. Something as ’small’ as a little cartoon on the side of a tin, can spark inspiration in someone who may then go on to write a blog post about it. Every time they open the cupboard to ‘make a brew’ they will be reminded of other creative folks who have something to brighten another soul’s day!

Oh and by the way, Mr Scruff also does pretty funky mixes too – music mixes, not just tea ones! He is signed to Ninja Tune – thought I would drop that bit in and make me sound all cool, and happening and not the type of person to have a tea cupboard and hoard tea caddies and even seriously consider whether they should knit themselves a tea cosy! – and you can find him on Spotify or here >> or here >>

Ah…does this mean that Miss Best has a little crush on Mr Scruffs? No, not at all – I keep my crushes for Christoffer and cake – and to clear something else up, I bought my friend a yummy box of vegan truffles instead, which I did actually manage to stop myself from keeping for myself. Though they would have gone exceedingly well with a cup of mint and chili tea!

So, let’s put the kettle on, turn up the volume and have a think about how we too can share our passions and skills with the world!

To buy some of this yummy and fun tea, visit The Make Us a Brew Company >>
(I love the fact that they are physically located on a road called Sparkle Street!)

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As you probably know, I am in the process of writing a recipe book. To be honest I had hoped that it would have been finished by now but during the past few months I have been feeling some big shifts in my development which I haven’t been able to put on the shelf for later.

When I first launched Miss Best I wasn’t totally sure of my direction. I knew what my passions and skills were (food, design, writing) so I felt that in order to take the first small steps towards working with things I love, I needed to just start somewhere, even if from an external eye it didn’t look very focused.

Over the past couple of months, I have really felt the pull to focus on sharing my food and recipes and knowledge of health related topics with others and have been spending a lot of time working on getting clear in my head what exactly I have to offer so that I can communicate this to the world with more clarity.

Well, I am extremely excited to finally reveal my new focus to you today. This is what’s new:

Loving Life – Loving Food – these are the words that reflect what Miss Best is about.

I believe that what we eat is closely linked not to just our physical health but indeed to all areas of our lives. To be able to love your life you need to be well and healthy and feel clear-headed and balanced. You need to love your food and your life, and your food needs to love you and your life. It’s about Life-Loving Food! Read more here.

I have finally named my first recipe e-book and can reveal that it is called…*drum roll*… Loving Life – Loving Desserts. I really love this name as it represents so much of what my food is about. Again, it’s about loving life and loving food (desserts) and it’s about food that loves life: Life-Loving Desserts!

My website has been updated to reflect my new focus and I would love you to go visit and let me know what you think. I have also used some of the beautiful photos that will be appearing in Loving Life – Loving Desserts. I am super happy with them as I really do think they represent my food well!

I will shortly be sending out a monthly newsletter to bring you yummy recipes, links to my weekly blog posts, super helpful tips, interesting facts, inspiration and exciting news. You can sign up for my free newsletter on my site.

You can also sign up for email updates of my blog posts. Just fill in the form at the top right hand side of this page.

Of course, the Miss Best site is a work in progress and I haven’t yet added all the information and tips that I want to, so please pop back again for another visit sometime soon.

In the mean time I wish you a wonderful weekend and would like to share with you this yummy recipe for a creamy, tasty healthy drink. Serve it in cocktail glasses and join me in a toast to my new adventure and to yours.

Love and chocolate-dipped strawberries,
Miss Best xx

Creamy Frozen Melon Drinkie
Serves 2

This shake is 100% melon but it’s so creamy it’s hard to believe there is no nut milk in there. Make sure your melons are nice and ripe! (oooh-er!!)

2 C honeydew or cantaloupe melon
1 C frozen honeydew or cantaloupe melon

Blend together and serve in decadent glasses.

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Avid readers may have noticed that this is my only blog post since last week. I do apologise if you have canceled and refused exciting events in order to wait by your computer to read my words, but I do have a valid reason and a note to teacher from my parents.

This past week has been mainly spent on the practicalities of setting up the business you know as Miss Best. To be honest, I was actually forced to get on with it all as I had an invoice to send out for some translation work I had done. Yay!

I also attended a useful information day for new business owners and have been spending a lot of time working out where I actually want to place my focus with my business. If you have visited my site www.miss-best.com you will have noticed that I currently have a bit of everything there: graphic design, copywriting, translation and of course my passion for food.

We as humans have so many different sides and roles: we can be artists, accountants, carers, writers, inventors, and athletes all at the same time. Well, not literally, that would be a bit of a challenge, even for the kings and queens of multitasking! What I mean is that since each part of us makes up our entire uniqueness it can be hard to single out one aspect to focus on. So what I have done since launching Miss Best this summer is to massage my various skills and passions and see which one feels best. And this week I have been working on where exactly I want to go. Where exactly I can help and inspire people the most. It’s a very exciting step, and I am looking forward to revealing all very soon.

I’ve been getting a lot of inspiration and direction from various coaches who generously give to us free articles and teleclasses to help us become successful and authentic/soulful entrepreneurs. Here are a few that you too may find of interest:

Corrina Gordon-Barnes – a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), who helps “women with passion who want to access and unlock that in order to make a true difference in our world, bringing forward much-needed solutions to our current challenges.” http://youinspireme.co.uk/

(I came across Corrina last year after going to her site to see who exactly had already nabbed the domain and company name You Inspire Me. She proved to be a totally worthy holder of this name, and I love to receive her free inspiring ezine. Sign up for it on her site!)

Nick Williams – “Nick is on a mission to help people move beyond their fears, play-bigger in their lives, and transform their passions into profitable businesses.”
www.inspired-entrepreneur.com/discovering_e_course

Heart of Business – their vision is ”whether you are self-employed, own your business, or bring an entrepreneurial heart to your job at work, is that your business become a profitable, sustainable, beacon of generosity in the fabric of your community.” www.heartofbusiness.com

Kendall Summerhawk – Money, Marketing and Soul for Woman entrepreneurs: www.kendallsummerhawk.com

Bria Simpson – Business and Marketing Mentor: www.briasimpson.com
(Don’t let the whole 6-figure goal scare you off in the above 2 links, there is still nice soulful advice to be had!)

Laura Howard West – a “business and life coach, who supports entrepreneurs in creating more passion, purpose and prosperity in their lives and businesses through coaching programs, workshops and retreats. She provides a unique blend of practical and spiritual principles and tools for creating meaningful success.” www.joyfulbusiness.com

Image: www.sxc.hu/profile/liesje1958

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When we moved to our house a few months ago I needed to acquire a desk. I had a look around for second hand ones but nothing came up that I wanted or wasn’t a ridiculously long drive away, so after a month of looking I decided that I couldn’t wait any longer (as I needed a desk to work on) and so went to IKEA.

As I was putting together my lovely new desk I got to a point where the thingy had to be put in the whatsit, but it really didn’t want to fit. So I just pushed it harder. And then, begrudgingly, it did eventually fit. But then I reliased that it wasn’t actually meant to go there, and I had to remove the thingy that I had managed to jam into the whatsit pretty firmly. Silly, Miss Best! Double silly Miss Best as this happened twice. It was only after the second time that I realised that I had accidentally skipped 2 pages of the instruction leaflet. Figuring this out made it much somewhat easier to get things into place as they should.

But while I sat there on the floor, surrounded by bits and bobs, and tools and packaging, I couldn’t help but compare my little flat-pack project to a bigger project called Life. It reminded me of a time in my life when I thought I wanted something. I had to struggle really hard to get it, and obviously when I did get it, it did not make me content as it wasn’t the life for the real, authentic me. And so I had to deconstruct my life, and start from scratch. That was during my twenties, and now I am 32 and finally feel that I am beginning to live the life I want and need, but I do feel like I have missed 2 pages in the instruction leaflet.

I was brought up with a slightly mainstream attitude to education, work and life, and it took me many years to figure out that mainstream life wasn’t for me. I know that part of life is the journey, but I do almost wish that I had been saved those non-authentic years so that I could have more joyful living behind me. Of course, I can console myself by saying that if we don’t have those painful times to compare with, we don’t appreciate the good times as much.

I am, however, hugely consoled and inspired by young people who can see that their lives lie along a less ordinary path and have the courage to follow it. I recall reading about a teenager who had been home educated and instead of sitting GCSEs (the exams that are sat in the UK around the age of 16) she chose to follow her joy and studied to become a massage therapist. So while her peers were stressing about exams, university, jobs, she already had the skills to earn money doing something she loved. Fabulous! And of course she is free to sit exams, and go to university should she change her mind. But she (and her parents) could see that there is not just one way and that we are all different.

So let’s not pass on our fear of being ‘different’ to the next generations. Let’s encourage them to develop themselves in the areas they really enjoy. Oh, and if any of them end up making instruction leaflets for IKEA, please ask them to design them so that the pages don’t stick together so easily!

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Today is my last day working as a Graphic Production Coordinator for a company here in Stockholm. Since April 2008 I have been working on the non-creative side (working from other people’s designs) of producing templates for web-to-print services (Our customers, for example, offer a service whereby you can quickly and easily put together printed material such as brochures or business cards on-line, without the need for a designer).

Needless to say it wasn’t really what I had applied to do, and despite doing very well in learning the specialized software with very little training or support it has not been a very creative or fulfilling job. But it served a purpose at the time, and I really do believe that I wasn’t meant to immerse myself in this job for too long as it was distracting me from a more magical, fulfilling and authentic life.

Last summer, after spending too many stressful and frustrating hours out of my precious days on this work, I asked if I could reduce by working hours to 60% so that I could have the space and energy to start navigating my life back to the plan I had made several years previously; namely to be able to spend more time working with the things that truly bring me joy, and preferably working from home, or at least locally to avoid expensive, time consuming and joyless commuting.

Fortunately, the company I have been working for has been pretty relaxed, unlike some of the places I have worked where there has been a formal dress code, and where I would get slapped wrists for being literally 2 minutes late for work, despite frequently putting in unpaid overtime! Maybe if this company had been more draconian, I would have quit earlier, but I almost got comfortable in my daily subtle drudgery. It is frighteningly easy to quickly slip into the routine of commute – work – commute – eat, then aim to distract ourselves from the sickening truth that we are forced to press ‘repeat’ the next day, and the next, until Saturday comes when we are left standing stranded in the wasteland of our ‘free time’ unused to being able to direct two whole days of our life as we please. Well, free apart from the chores we need to carry out in order to support the following week’s toil: ironing clothes, making lunch boxes, going shopping to buy comfort food and drink that that will get us through the working days…

Thankfully since going down to part time (I will write a blog post one day to share how I could afford to work less) it wasn’t as bad as all that…but the memories of several years of working full-time in soul-shriveling jobs still stings me today. So now, at the age of 32, I finally feel that I am beginning to see the path that I wish I saw during my university days. University; what a scam! As teenagers we are told: ‘Get an education, and if you knuckle down you will soar to the top of your field, being rewarded for your hard work with support, praise and promotions’. Wrong! Life wasn’t like that for me or most of the people I know in those almost random jobs one gets. It’s as Michael Cera’s character, George Michael, says in the series ‘Arrested Development’ as he panics the night before an exam: “If I fail at Math then I wont get a chance at being happy by working hard for the rest of my life”.

I truly hope that you wont recognize this pattern as you have been financially rewarded for doing the things you love, and that you have maintained your authentic self and path. I hope that when you hear the line from the film ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’: “From now on your name is no longer David Webb, It’s Jason Bourne. Welcome to the programme…” you don’t flinch and twitch and flick nervously through your mind between images of uncomfortable office wear; pointless meetings with dull and moaning co-workers; idiotic bosses; packed commuter trains; and a slowly deflating heart.

For me – who did flinch at that line – this is a really exciting start. But it has taken ten years since entering the ‘working world’ to get to this point. And this point is only the equivalent of deciding to go to the map shop to buy the map! I know which map I want to buy and I roughly know which navigational tools can help me get there, but it’s going to be slightly experimental as to how I move towards a life of joyful work. I do know though that, where ever I end up, this is the right thing for me. I hope you will enjoy what I can share from my journey!

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The key to problem solving: The freedom to be creative, fake creativity or, if all else fails, chocolate!

‘Be creative…now!’ ‘Solve a problem…now!’ Ever had that pressure put on you? I know I have. One time that springs to mind was a grueling 2 day entry-test to get into an Industrial Design Degree programme at Lund University. I had a really bad cold, and not a lot of creative experience or confidence behind me. It was horrid. Chuck a load of wanna-be designers in a room and give them a load of briefs (design briefs not designer briefs!!) and watch them sweat! I had a fever and the shakes and had to present my work to a panel, who must have thought I was a nervous wreck or severely hungover, or had Parkinson’s Disease until I pointed out that I was in fact suffering from a nasty nasty cold. I got a lot of praise during that panel interview…sadly not for my outstanding work, but for my apparent good command of the Swedish language. I didn’t get in. The universe knows best anyway, as a few months later during another degree programme I discovered my love for graphic design, which I think is far more instant, satisfying and accessible, and suits me much better.

You might think to yourself that if I am moaning about the pressure of coming up with designs on the spot then I am not suited to the modern work place. And I will quite agree with you. I mean I can certainly perform under pressure and am always pretty creative, but I have to say that my best ideas do not come when plonked in front of a computer and prodded with a stick to perform.

My most creative ideas come when I am not at a desk, and when I am not particularly thinking about the problem. I am sure we have all heard that the great thinkers came up with their revolutionary theories when doing other things than working. Mine often come to me when I am walking in nature or working out. In the days when I used to be partial to more than a drink or two I would find that the delicious, barely awake stage of waking up the morning after (when still slightly intoxicated) was an amazingly creative time. It was during one such morning when I lay in bed just 25% awake in a dreamy state yet with my mind going to crazy, alcohol induced places that I came up with the cheeky, but much appreciated, slogan for a back-mounted vacuum cleaner with a built-in massage function and MP3 player that I was working on for a group project. “Vac-Pac: Pleasure from behind!”

In fact I am sometimes tempted to get ridiculously drunk just to experience that wonderfully creative window of time the next day. But now that I am a little older – and therefore far less tolerant of the physical and mental hell that comes with a hang over – I think I will give it a miss and bounce on my mini trampoline instead.

So I do find it frustrating when companies insist on fixed working hours. Especially since I have had the good fortune of breaking away from the traditional 9-5 route and am more used to directing my own time and working when creativity is there.

And I know I am not the only one. A friend is doing some contract work at a rather old fashioned organization. He is used to working with modern, high-tech companies and despairs at the Stone-age mentality of his new colleagues. He rather amusingly described their use of email: “They come up to me at my desk and tell me that they have sent me an email. They then hand me a printed version of the email they have just sent!” Funny but insanely frustrating! So this organization is really not in the ‘problems are more likely to be solved away from the computer’ camp and have even bothered to reprimand him for not doing all his work chained to a desk.

So what you may ask, has prompted this public criticism of modern work life? Well, today I am not working in the office. Today I am free to go to and from the computer depending on my mood and my state of creativity. No prodding sticks. No need to ‘fake work’ to show that I am in fact thinking about the problem and not just aimlessly staring out of the window. You know the ‘I am actually working’ look don’t you? The frown of concentration; deliberately talking to your self; writing something down and dramatically crossing it out again; stabbing the air with a pointed finger and giving a satisfied nod? You don’t know it? It’s a good tactic to use when stapled to your desk until some form of inspiration strikes. Alternatively, you could subscribe to the following idea which is slightly less bonkers and far more pleasant:

May all people, who has completed a major piece of work
and who soon are going to sleep
may all souls who for a moment
feel themselves to be without inspiration and motivation
may all people who find the air humid, the time moving slowly
and the mood difficult to appreciate
grant themselves a good half liter of hot chocolate……..
they will experience a miracle.

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1775-1826)
French magistrate and gastronome

What ever you are doing – have a great day. Eat chocolate. Be inspired!

xx

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As I have mentioned before, I love Booja Booja truffles. I also love inspiring companies that break the mold and operate in an authentic and responsible way.

I thought I would share this beauty with you:

“The Booja Booja company exists to nurture intimacy, balance, well-being, love, ecstasy and humour in the world through all avenues available.” – the Booja Booja Business Purpose

What’s your business/life purpose?

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