I had a fantastic conversation with Courtney Barkley the other day.
When we returned from a trip to Manchester to work together on the Extreme Business Quarter days with Chris Barrow.
We (I) decided that it would be possible to nip for a pint at a wonderful little bar beside the station in Nottingham that Courtney knew of before and I didn't, and so we sat in the sunshine, reflecting on our day, having a pint before we both went home.
It became very clear to me that this is one of those moments where you put a flag in the sand, as I've talked about many times here.
Instead of immediately rushing off back to the day-to-day of what we're doing, we stopped for a minute together and had extraordinary philosophical conversations about what it's like to create memories and why it's important.
The stop and the discussion about creating memories created a memory of its own, and I will always be able to go back to Courtney and talk about that time we travelled back from Manchester and had a sneaky pint together to talk s**t before we went home.
I'm all about this.
Putting a flag in the sand to mark the day.
If you don't do it, you'll never remember it.
The older I get and the faster time passes, the more important it is to create these little memories, these little flags, as many days as possible. As I've said here before, I have a notice board in my office (please ask me to look at it if you're ever in the practice).
At the start of the year, it's empty, with almost nothing on it apart from a few very personal items, and what I do through the year is put things on it, attached with a magnet or around the edges of cool things I've done and things that I want to remember going forward.
Sometimes it's a thank you card, sometimes a printed email from someone, sometimes a photograph or a badge for a congress, sometimes it's a ticket for a concert. Whatever it is, places I've been, things I've seen.
I popped a couple of items on it yesterday from the trip north to meet and see my parents in their new house last week with Callum, in particular the scorecard of the game of golf that we played, which I'll always remember, and I realised the board was full in August.
I laughed at it with Stuart Reiki; I need to get some more magnets.
I've got years of these boards now; in December it comes off and goes in an envelope, so that I can look at it and go through it again when I'm sat in my chair in the old folks' home. I'm able to remember anything.
It gives me meaning, it gives me purpose, it makes my heart swell; it can't get better than that.
Blog Post Number - 4652
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