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A fresh start calls for a new color scheme. Bring out the crayons

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Creating our imageI write every morning in my journal…or at least that’s my goal. This morning I was thinking about my upcoming move, 64 days.  My sofa is in desperate need of reupholstering so I’m daydreaming about color. The colors I’m feeling drawn to these days are bold— more reds, purples and soft pinkish-oranges, a drastic change from my cool soft blue-greens.

And that led me to think about creative business planning.

What if we viewed our lives as the unfolding of a brand, a story?  At any point in time we can change our logos, refine our stories, and update the colors of our lives. That’s what I’m in the process of doing, and my impending move is leading me to think of my life in a new way. This feels right on many levels. It’s not just the whimsical indulgence of planning a new color palette or buying fabric—it’s more of a process, something intuitive.

I started my freelance writing career working for a digital marketing/content strategist. One of the things they did was to create personas of typical users for a product or brand–it allowed all of us to visualize, to connect with client’s ideal customer. The needs of a 32-year-old stay-at-home white suburban woman with 2 kids required a different approach than those of the black single 40-year-old male working in a corporate environment.

What does a single 60-year-old writer look like? What’s her brand, her logo, her colors?

This is one of those transitional places in life–selling a home, downsizing, divorcing, helping the last child launch into adulthood.  We aren’t necessarily different people at that point, but we do have gaps to fill, routines to modify and new habits to embrace. And, it might be that our external circumstances change as we explore what those changes mean for us. That’s where I am right now. The play with color and room layout isn’t just whimsy, it’s an exercise to help me step into that new place. Once I can ‘see myself’ there, I can adapt more readily. Just like our business–we have to envision where we want to be, describe what it will look like, and then take actions to bring it to fruition. How we do that is an individual choice–for me, it might start with a new desk in a well-placed spot with a view of nature, a place for my coloring pencils, and a clear sense of purpose.

It’s a journey. It can be haphazard and a hodge-podge of colors and images, or it can be well-thought out and visually/emotionally satisfying. My journey requires coloring pencils and grid paper! What do you need?

 

Image from Photopin 

The post A fresh start calls for a new color scheme. Bring out the crayons appeared first on Walker Thornton.


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