I read a brilliant thing yesterday, which I’ll probably paraphrase clunkily, but it was something on the lines of “the human brain is wired to wonder”. And it really struck me in this age of instant problem solving, where A.I can in seconds provide us with a multitude of solutions, where we have the power of millions of mega bytes quite literally in our hands and all the data we could ever munch, how much do we ever wonder anymore?
By wonder, I mean question, look at the everyday, ordinary, often underappreciated things and ask: how did that get there, why did that sound so good, why did that taste so bad, how does that pen work, what if I didn’t run the hot tap, who is actually counting?
And we all know the clearly established link between creativity and curiosity, but I think ‘wonder’ is a much better way of framing it. It’s where the magic is, the spark, that serendipity, the coincidence, the luck, the eureka moment.
As a creative director in a PR agency, I owe it to my clients and my brain to keep wondering. And Autumn for me is always that opportunity to hit refresh. For some of us, it’s the start of the year with the dreaded New Year’s resolutions, for some it’s Spring when we go outside and plant fresh seeds but I see Autumn as ushering in the beginning of new adventures, the chance to reflect, to gather thoughts around you, like a blanket on a cosy Sunday. It probably harks back to school days, when each September my mind was ready to be filled up again with new things.
So each September from this year on, I’m going to make sure that I fill my mind up with new wonders. I’m calling it My Autumn Wonders. I’m going to question, check, see things differently. I’m going to dig a bit deeper, to challenge the accepted, to mix up the everyday, to connect the dots and the dashes.
Let’s see where it leads me, let’s see what ideas it creates, let’s see how many pumpkin spice lattes I avoid.
Sarah Firth, Strategy and Creative Director