It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be

Having already read Paul Arden's previous book, Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite I was intrigued to find out that he also had another book published in the same style and given how insightful it was, I knew this one would be equally as good. Having spent a lot of time on trains recently, I found I was reading a lot more so much so that I read this book twice over in one weekend (can you tell I liked it?) and I feel like a took a lot of useful advice from it.

"Don't seek praise, seek criticism"

Often when it comes to giving feedback for other people's work or asking others about my own work, people are likely to say nice things about it, which is good for me and my ego but it's doesn't help in terms of the development of my piece. So Paul suggests always instead asking questions to provide critique on your work; what's wrong with it? What could be better? This is very important for me as I usually don't ask enough questions during a crit session or don't ask the right ones leaving me with general feedback which doesn't always help developing my ideas.

"Don't be afraid of silly ideas"

As creatives we can often come to a sudden halt in our work flow, otherwise know as a creative block. At this moment in time, I feel like this is all too relevant but Paul suggests that the best way to unblock a mental block is to lose our inhibitions and stop worrying about always wanting to be right. Personally, I always worry too much about being right all the time with my work, whether visually or conceptually, to a point of where I become narrow minded and clueless. This ultimately drives me into a ditch of anxiety and worst all boringness as far as my work is concerned, I think sometimes I just need to let loose with my ideas.

"Don't give a speech, put on a show"

Another huge help for me being the terrified little mouse that I am when it comes to presenting, having never done much before in the past aside from last year's PPP presentation, I think my presentation skills and confidence are lacking. So Paul puts forward the idea that your lectures/presentation should be more than just talking, giving your advice etc. instead you should try painting a picture for the audience, as he puts it 'putting on a show'. I think this is something that I should take into account when it comes to presenting, even within the classroom and carrying on into the future at pitches etc. by creating a more visual presentation it will make for a much more interesting presentation and also something that will be remembered by those watching (fingers crossed).

"GET OUT OF ADVERTISING!"

A little over exaggerated I'll admit but this is for me, potentially one of the most important pieces of advice he gave through the course of his book. Although I don't always work on pieces related to advertising, I think that the advice applies to anyone within the the design field of work. By this he's referring to a lot of the inspiration that comes for new ideas for new ads come from advertising itself, be that old examples of it. instead Paul suggests getting out of the area you're working in and to take inspiration from elsewhere, unexpected sources, your environment, anything at all that surrounds you on your day to day life in the hope that it will spark new and original ideas for your work.