NORTHERN PLANNER

I had a mini epiphany after some sessions with a physio. Two actually.

To begin at the beginning, I’ve had a sore shoulder for months, it started when I was swimming and, if I was a rational human being, I would have stopped and got it looked at, but oh no, I raged at my middle aged body letting me down and tried to push through it.

Idiot.

Obviously I made it a lot worse than it needed to be, and weeks of trying to rehab it seemed to be getting nowhere, until I met said physio who asked me different questions, not just about swimming about, well everything.

And she found the problem isn’t swimming, it’s sleeping. Years and years ago, I discovered that when I’m fast asleep, I put turn on my back and put my arms right behind my head. There is no rational explanation for it, it just ‘is’.

And it was trapping my rotator cuff, and it was rebelling.

The treatment isn’t adjusting my swim position, or just rehab and strength and exercises, it’s sleeping different, so my rotator cuff doesn’t get ‘pinched’.

As in most things, treating the wrong problem will get you knowhere and it often takes an outside perspective to figure out what it really holding you back – and better questions.

No doubt you’ll have seen this in strategy and brand stuff, solving a problem can only begin with knowing you have one.

I feels good to know you’re doing something, but feeling good isn’t the goal, solving things is.

Oh, and she also told me stretching isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, it feels good, like it’s doing something important but it doesn’t really do that much (if fact it can be counter productive) and showed me all sorts on mobility and pressure point release.

In other words, just because it feels good, it doesn’t mean it’s doing any good. Like a brand refresh that looks amazing but it’s linked to any reality about the business role in the real world, or what it could be. Or a well written observation that is peddled as an insight.

Just because it feels good, it doesn’t make it right.