A photo a day...

It’s only just over a year since I left my exotic, tropical life in rural Cambodia.  Can you blame me if, in comparison, I find suburban Britain just a little dull?

Yet perhaps there is beauty – or at least interest – to be found in the ordinary, even here in middle-class, middle of the road Oxfordshire?

Well let’s see!  As a new year resolution, I am undertaking a ‘365 project’.  All I have to do is take a photo each day, and upload it onto a website called blipfoto.com. 

I first heard of this idea from my wonderful colleague, Alison, now in Phnom Penh.  It sounded pretty rubbish to me! 

Though you can do the actual uploading later, I really didn’t like the way the website restricts your daily entry to photos actually taken on that day (information on the date and time of digital photos is included as part of its digital ‘fingerprint’ - did you know that?). 

What this means is if you want a daily photo, you actually have to take a photo every day;  no delaying to the end of the week, no awaiting that illusive free moment, no filling in with previous snaps.

Constraining?  Not a bit of it!  Rather, this structure is strangely liberating; committing to taking a photo a day has already made me more alert to my surroundings. 

For example, yesterday I photographed a postbox which I cycle past twice a day – yet I hadn’t even noticed it had been painted gold for the Olympics.  I certainly hadn’t appreciated it is an unusual (if slightly ugly) 1970s design, one not even listed on the Bath Postal Museum’s website!

And the day before I snapped a painting in the corridor at work.  I must have walked past it countless times, but my desire for a daily image led me to look again - and it’s rather intriguing.  At first the bright colours suggest a happy family.  But then why is only one person smiling?  And if they’re a family, why are they all girls? 

There are risks:  it is not hard to unleash the obsessive in me, and this could be yet another way to distract myself from More Important Things (though what could be more important that appreciating my surroundings?).  And the search for an impressive image may take away the fun - especially now I discover that another dear friend, Zia, is also taking the challenge - yes, that's the guy who just had a solo exhibition of stunning black and white images in Nairobi.  No pressure then!

But really it’s not much different to my weekly blog – you, dear reader, are secondary; it is essentially personal (or selfish?), a way to help me be more appreciative and understanding of the world, just pictorially rather than verbally this time. 

I do belive that if I can be just a bit more aware of the beauty – or even just the interest – which surrounds me, I will value what I have and where I am a whole lot more.  Just as Buddhists aim for mindfulness - a calm awareness of the body, sensations, thoughts, even consciousness itself - so I will find beauty at The Plain and enlightenment on Divinity Road.  Perhaps I’m not so far from Cambodia after all.

So off I go in search of today’s image. Perhaps we don’t have to go half way round the world to find something special.  This year I’ll try to find a little magic right here, in the everyday. Every day.

How to cheat at new year resolutions

Making plans – it’s what I do for a living.  So when new year comes around, I’m in my element.

Resolutions are like any other plan.  Unlike many areas of business, here there is good evidence to guide best practice.

Luckily, rules are there to be broken.  Here are my top 5 tips to fiddle the whole thing:

1. Keep it in your head.  Avoid committing to paper as it provides evidence, clarifies thoughts, and provides some kind of contract (psychological if not legal).  If you keep it vague and ill-defined you can quietly (or brazenly) move the goalposts, change the rules or alter the whole sporting analogy as you choose.
2. Keep control.  If you must take this road, travel alone.  Involving others is another subtle commitment trap.  They are much more likely to define useful resolutions which actually involve change and effort on your part.  Don’t ask, or you’ll get killers like “Stop eating chocolate” and “Only one hour of Facebook a day”.  Rather, get your defense in early:  “I really value your input – but you’ll understand that I need to do this for myself”.
3. Keep them small in number.  A few broad statements are easy to fudge; more specific commitments are hard to wriggle out of.   “I’m sticking to three this year, to make sure I uh-hum really focus on them and er achieve something concrete…”
4. Keep it vague.  Avoid objectives which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic or timeframed (‘smart’ as silly acronym-users say).   Don’t say: “I will eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, upload a new image to Blipfoto, and post a card (on time) to everyone on my birthday calendar - plus gifts for the godchildren”.  Rather, go for grand-sounding and meaningless:  “Get healthy”, “Be more cultured”, “Be a good friend”.  And if pressured into writing, good old paper is so much easier to mislay than the processed word.
5. Keep to things you’ve already done.  This is the best ruse of all.  If you have to commit to something specific, fire the arrow first, and define whatever you hit as your target.  “I will cycle every day” (I already do), support my local overseas development group (ditto), get married (going to happen anyway!).

My resolution?  To weed out such rubbish planning at work.  And to resolutely continue it at home.  Happy new year!