NORTHERN PLANNER

When I used to race at swimming, we were always neurotic about managing form, peaking for the big races, not overtraining, the usual.

What astounded me was the effect of holidays. Just a two weeks off and when you got back into the pool you were just rubbish.

It would take at least the time off to get back to where you were. 

It's why I have a love hate relationship with swimming now. I never want to lose the feeling of doing something well, being able to do something most can't, but it's just not possible to feel how it did when I was training 5 hours a day. 

This is why Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours theory is only half the story. It may take that long to get to expert status, however, if you don't keep practising, your hard won superiority will disappear quite quickly. 

Not just the body, the mind. 

London taxi drivers have been found to have the part of their brain responsible for spacial awareness and navigation much bigger than average. When they retire though, it rapidly goes back to average. 

Just as a swimmer might lose big shoulders, their brains will forget how to swim without thinking and they lose their feel for the water. After just two weeks aways you feel like a balloon. 

Naturally, this means that strategy folks can't afford to sit back and relax once they become a director or whatever.

As soon as you don't write many briefs, you're once tight, inspiration pieces will become bloated and dull – or at least it will take you twice as long to get where you used to.

Looking at lots of information, cutting through the clutter and saying 'it's just about this' will become more of a headache and you'll be more likely to get lost down a rabbit hole of information overload. The complicated will remain complicated. 

Of course, you could decide to be a leader who just guides without getting their hands dirty, but the more you go stale, the less you'll move forward and you'll just be replaced. When so much talk around the job is the craft (maybe too much) those who are not craftspeople will get jettisoned. 

Its great to be modest and let others shine, but eventually you'll be outshone.

You should think about your clients this way. Brands are really habits people have adopted to make life simple. As soon as you switch off marketing, without that continuous presence in hearts and minds, the habit becomes weaker and eventually they'll buy something else that's easier or more exciting.

People need to buy to keep buying and you need to keep reminding them why. 

In other words, no matter if you're an athlete, a planner/strategist or brand, you can never afford not doing your reps.