This is optimal living daily episode 789 logos by calling right with the minimalist calm and just a molecule personal narrator reading to you every day, including weekends and holidays, just like an audio book, but free of charge announcement today, I mentioned in yesterday's episode that I'll announce a paid for you meet up if you're able to attend here in Southern California, my business partner Lee and I decided we should go bowling and pay for listeners that want to come and mingle, you don't have to bowl, you can just watch. But in any case, you can meet some of the OLD podcast team and have some fun here in Irvine, California, that's Orange County in Southern California, and we're shooting for a Saturday or Sunday at the end of this month, which is February or early March. If you're interested, get in contact with us at oldpodcast.com, we'd love to see you there, and again, it'll be on us so you don't have to pay anything, just a thank you for listening if you're in the area. Now let's get to today's post and start optimizing your life.
Logos by calling right with the minimalist calm. It's estimated that most people see tens of thousands of marketing messages a day, and you might see even more than that depending on where you live in the world. That's a lot of messages, and most of them are trying to convince you of something. To add insult to injury, many of these messages don't even seem like marketing.
Instead, a product is mentioned in a pop song or displayed in the background on a primetime dramedy. Perhaps the most cunning of these messages, though, is the apple on your laptop, or the swoosh on your sneakers, or the charging bowl on your energy drink can. I say cunning because in most cases, consumers of the products bearing these logos are more than happy to display them. In fact, they feel a little ripped off if they couldn't.
The logo stands for something, whether it be quality, edginess, or a certain indefinable cool that you understand but can't put your finger on. These associations aren't accidental. There are teams of very intelligent people in charge of building up the reputation of these iconic marks. They make sure their computers are used by the right people, and their energy drinks are chugged by the most influential stars for specific demographics.
It's an aspect of branding that is part art and part science, and its most shining success has been making consumers feel that by associating themselves with a certain logo, certain colors, certain words, certain songs, certain tastes, and certain packaging, there are themselves transformed into something more. They believe that some of the quality or edginess or cool, displayed in commercials and magazine spreads will somehow rub off on them. In a way, it does. It's said that you are what you eat, and if you decide that you're a whole foods person, for example, chances are you're eating more organic, healthy foods than someone who associates themselves with the McDonald's brand.
It's not a given, but the likelihood is higher. The association is very superficial. The attributes that cause a person to eat healthier are not imbued by a brand. The brand simply brings these attributes to the surface.
It's encouraging to feel there are other people like you out there. When you're not just a log floating down a lonesome river, you're part of a movement, something bigger than yourself. This is your grocery store. The important thing to remember is that you don't need logos to be something.
You don't need to wear a swoosh to be better at sports. You just need to practice and feel confident with your development. You don't need to drink from a specific can to be the kind of person who enjoys skydiving is snowboarding. You just have to decide you want to do those things, men, do them.
You don't need to have the right logo on your compostable shopping bag to eat healthier. You just have to decide to eat healthier and then do it. Logos are shortcuts. They allow us to jump on board and move train and enjoy the speed as much as anyone else on board.
The trouble is, it can be difficult to get off a moving train and even more difficult to start walking once you have. Traveling on foot just seems too slow by comparison. Logos are labels. They associate you with a specific set of attributes, a movement in many cases.
If you were to go logo lists and lose those associations, you might find it difficult to express just who you are. Does this something I counter all the time as someone who eschews logos as often as possible? The most significant difference is that no one knows where to place you. If you don't have logos that symbolize your loyalties, associations, and to a growing degree, economic status, people aren't quite sure where you fit.
The most beneficial part of going label lists is that you're forced to figure out who you are down to the nitty, grittiest detail. Rather than being able to shorthand your personality, I'm kind of an Oakley guy and I dig the Giants and NASCAR, but I also have a soft spot for indie rock and classic Zeppelin. You have to know yourself in the context of yourself. You're not the kind of person who likes X, you're you.
This is a difficult process at first because early on we learned how to describe ourselves as a collection of overlapping Venn diagrams. The only uniqueness we can offer up is the complexity of the shape that circles make and which circles we use. Being your own brand and building yourself up from scratch is more like writing a series of short stories about yourself. You're forced to understand who you are in a vacuum rather than who you are in the context of some soft drink storyline.
As you go through life, brands and people will try to force you to define yourself in terms that they understand in their context as you relate to them and what they think is important. You don't have to tear all the logos off your clothing and gadgets, but be careful that you don't let them define you and reject those who try and force you to belong to one camp or another. You are an individual and completely unique. Remember that and aspire to be frustratingly unlabelable.
You just listened to the post titled Logos by CallRightWithTheMinimalist.com It's never too early to plan your summer story in Europe with WestJet from rolling countryside to cobblestone streets. Begin your next chapter. Book your seat at WestJet.com or call your travel agent WestJet where your story takes off. I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health, what supplements to take, hours of sleep, what my diet should focus on.
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And head to superpower.com and use code old at checkout for an additional $20 off your membership. I very recently narrated a post from Colin, but this one was a guest post from him on the minimalist site. And actually an excerpt from his book, Act Accordingly, which you can find on Amazon. And I'll make this a very quick reminder if you can be near Orange County, California at the end of February or early March and want to come to Optimal Bowling.
Meet some of the hosts and other people in bowl if you want to, all for free. Let me know and I'll send you more information once we have it. You can get in touch at oldpodcast.com. Hope you're having a great day.
Thank you for being here and subscribing to the show. And I'll see you tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.