My slight obsession with trainers..

As I came home from JD sports yesterday and took my new pair of trainers out of their Nike box and put them on my shef along with my other trainers, the thought came to my mind..BLOG! I have always been a lover of things fashionable and comfy and the main reason I love trainers is the fact that they are of both.

It is quite ironinc to think back to being at high school and the thought of wearing trainers when meeting up with my friends or going out would not have crossed my mind. I literally would only wear boots (UGGs were a big obsession of mine for a long time) or converse. Yet today everyday I wear trainers and looking around I am not alone. Almost every person you pass in the street these days are wearing trainers, mostly either Nike or Adidas.

My two sisters and my mum are also trainer obsessed (maybe not to my level) and they are lucky enough to all be the same shoe size so share and swap their trainers with eachother so literally they wear different ones everyday. Unfortunately for me I have smaller feet so can't share their shoes but it's quite a good excuse to just buy more trainers by saying I'm not as previledged as them as they have loads between them (fair enough..?!)

When I bought yet another pair the other day my mum said 'do you seriously need another pair?' .. of course you know my reply, but they are so ideal for me as my uni accommodation is a 20 minute walk to the uni everyday. So really thank god trainers are in fashion!

'Whatever you think, think the opposite' - (Paul Arden)

The final book I read for reading week was ' Whatever you think, think the opposite.' Once again it was a book I actually really enjoyed reading and took note of some of the quotes I liked in particular.

"It is better to regret what you have done than what you haven't."   - This is my favourite quote from the book and probably out of all the four books I read. It is a motivational quote giving encouragement to go out and do things, make mistakes and learn from them as this is how we get closer to being a success. It is also better to fail and learn learn than to regret what you have not done and always wonder how different your life would be if you had done that certain thing.

"Take charge; be your own worst critic" - This makes it clear that as humans when things go wrong it is tempting to easily blame others or things, but we should not do this. Instead, we should take responsibility! You will be respected more for that.

"Sometimes the clever thing is to not be so clever." - Often people think too hard and get carried away with trying to come up with new and innovative ideas that they miss the simple, amazing ones.

"The achievement of failure"  - This quote caught my eye as I thought it was a cleverly worded quote putting two opposites in to one. However, it is actually spot on as it is so true that you learn more from making mistakes than you can imagine.

There are no rules -- Hegarty on creativity

I really enjoyed reading this book Hegarty on creativity, by Thames and Hudson and took some clever, interesting quotes from it.

"What the heart knows today, the head will understand tomorrow."  -  (James Stevens, Irish writer)
This explains that creativity lies within the heart and as people we get ideas and in our heart we will know whether it is a great idea or not so we should ignore our head and follow or heart!

"Creativity should encourage, enthuse, engage and entertain."

"Creativity is not an occupation; it's a preoccupation."  -  to be a creative you must be always working as this involves constantly looking, thinking and watching. This made me think for a few minutes as to how much I really look, think and watch things around me properly and it made me feel I need to reflect and do these things a lot more often.

"Remove your headphones!"  -  the writer put their point across that wearing headphones walking around is such a big mistake to make as people are cutting themselves from the inspiration around them. Due to the fact inspiration is all around us...,all we see, hear, smell, touch and taste help us to form new ideas, even if we don't realise it at the time. This was probably the quote that had the most impact on me in a way that it made me stop and think for a moment that I constantly have my headphones in when walking around from place to place. Whether I am walking to and from uni, going shopping to just for a general walk, I have my music on. However, I think from now onwards I will try to not always put my headphones in straight away so I can appareciate what is really going on around me and avoid missing out on any inspiration.

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

Another great book which I honestly really enjoyed reading. It takes a very interesting book to get me to keep on reading as I find I literally can get so easily distracted (literally at anything...) but I found many of the quotes inspirational and lots of them made me stop and think for a moment of their true meanings.

Here are some of these quotes I particularly liked...:

"Your vision of where or who you want to be is the greatest asset you have ..;without having a goal it is difficult to score."   I really liked this quote and found it very inspirational and encouraged me to think of what my ultimate goal of who and where I want to be is. At the moment I concluded I want to be a buyer so reflecting on this resulted in me researching ways to get in to this particular career and I read in to the career quite a lot so I gained new, beneficial knowledge of it I did not know before.

"You can achieve the unachievable"
"If you think you are unable to work for the best company in its sphere, make that your aim."
I liked these quotes because they make it clear that if you constantly think you cannot exceed your limits and get out of your comfort zone, you will only settle for 'decent' rather than 'greatness.'

"Do not seek praise, seek criticism"

"Don't promise what you can't deliver"

"Fail, fail again, fail better!"
When I first read this quote I thought it made absolutely no sense whatsoever as failing is something which we think negatively of and all try to avoid.However, this quote made me realise that it is through making mistakes that we learn and can focus on bettering ourselves until eventually we meet our goal of success.

The French Braid

Originally the french plait is rumoured to have been thought of by an 18th-century French stylist as a twist on the traditional English braid.

French plaits (aka french braids) are a handy, out of the face hairstyle that still look pretty and that an effort has been made. When I was in primary school I started to learn to french plait from watching videos and used to wear them all the time. As I got older I stopped as I thought it was a childish style up until very recently however as french plaits seems to be a hairstyle trend, especially as a sporty look. Now when I go to the gym or for a walk/ run I put my hair in two french plaits which is ideal both fashionably and practically as it keeps the hair off my face but still looks the 'sporty' part.

French plaits can also be worn as an accessory part of a hairstyle by them just being small often done on the top of the head to look like a hairband or at the side. This is a pretty style and looks like a lot more effort has been made to create it than actually is.

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'Damn Good Advice'

I am currently on my uni reading weeks and we were given 4 books to read. So far I have just finished my first book 'Damn Good Advice' which I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed and read it in a day. It is a life lesson book full of tips related to being a creative written by George Lois, an advertiser. I found the whole book very interesting but wanted to share some of my favourite tips mentioned;

1.) If people think you are dumb, you will spend a life time doing dumb work - Lois is encouraging people to face the reality that we should speak out and let ourselves be known to others, otherwise we will not come to people's attention of our capabilities and this will stop us moving up in our career.

2.) Never ever work for bad people!

3.) Even a brilliant idea won't sell itself -- Lois makes it clear here explaining it is only the creator who can sell their idea - it won't just become noticed itself.

4) Throughout your career be thrilled that you are doing work that you love

5.) Never listen to music when you are trying to come up with a Big Idea! -- this line particularly caught my attention as I am most definitely a music lover. However, it definitely makes sense to be in silence or just away from any distractions whilst trying to come up with a Big Idea, especially if you have a passion for music because as George Lois wrote, 'music carries people away, possibly to somewhere you do not want or need to be to discover the idea'.