The Captain’s Blog : Archive for August, 2008

Recently I took a week long vacation to Seattle Washington. What a beautiful city it is, with large trees everywhere. It is so lush and green. I was also impressed by the many beautiful ocean views I saw. Seattle could probably tout having the largest coastline of any city. To enhance the beauty, temperatures hovered in the 70’s and 80’s accompanied by a nice ocean breeze. At the end of the week when I returned home to my beautiful Utah I was met by sweltering heat and what seemed to be a barren landscape. Suddenly something dawned on me, I live in a desert! I’d always known that, but it now hit me with shocking clarity. Getting away for a time had helped to open my eyes to the truth. I still love the state I live in, but now I see it for what it is.

When you remove yourself from a situation or a project for a time, it helps you to see things more clearly. When you have greater clarity you will better realize your vision for success.

Brandon Jeppson

Lets face it, the day to day work load doesn’t often allow for crazy exploration of ideas. If that’s true, how can you keep your thinking fresh and “outside the box”? Have you ever considered creating more work for yourself? Sounds a little crazy, I know, especially when so many things demand your time already. However, when you create your own project, with you as the client, it allows for trying strange things that the average client might not be to thrilled about. It also allows you to try things that might be dead ends that don’t solve the problem.

One of my coworkers that has a love for great music found a solution. Every so often he gives himself the homework assignment to create a new “mix tape”, a group of MP3s selected to form a cool custom album. He then designs a sweet cover that embodies the feel of the collected music. As an awesome plus, later some of these designs have provided solutions for challenges that come up in the day to day projects.

Expand your thinking and let something move you to create and explore new ideas. I know you like to be free from homework but maybe it’s time to give yourself a little.

Brandon Jeppson