• Creating

My Totally Sweet Track Jacket

By Todd Henry

Once my wife and I were traveling north and we saw some outlet malls along the highway. We stopped and spent a few hours going from store to store looking for “deals”, which were quite honestly pretty difficult to find. (It seemed like this outlet mall was more like an “outlet” for our money.) We went into the Banana Republic store, and as I was rummaging through the merchandise I came across something that caught my attention. It was a sleek, black-with-white-stripes track jacket. 

Going into the store, I had no intention of purchasing a track jacket. Honestly, it had never crossed my mind to buy one. Ever. And I’m not sure what compelled me to make the plea to my wife that I absolutely MUST have this “totally sweet” track jacket. (Oh, I forgot to mention that this particular outlet mall had the strange effect of transporting us back to the ’80s as well.)

So I carried the jacket to the register, the cashier rang it up and we made our way to the car. I was VERY content with my purchase and so looking forward to the first time I would wear my jacket.

Long story short, that was about four years ago and the jacket has never been worn. Not once. I don’t even know if it’s crossed my mind since that day until I happened upon it while looking for a shirt to wear to a speaking engagement last week.

What caused my obsession with purchasing the jacket and what caused me to drop cash on something I would never wear?

1. Time was running short and I’d not made a single purchase. I didn’t want my trip to the mall to be a “waste.” (Silly, I know. But try to convince me you’ve never made a purchase for this reason.)

2. It was unique and immediately caught my attention. It stood out from the clutter.

3. Since I’d never considered a track jacket, the novelty of the idea immediately opened up possibilities for me of how I could use it. (I could wear it running, to the office, etc.) 

4. Eventually, because I was enamored with the possibility of owning the jacket, I began to “backward-rationalize” why I should purchase it. I talked myself into it.

Once the “moment” passed, however, and I was home, the jacket seemed somehow less…practical. There was never the perfect time to wear it, or the weather wasn’t right, or it was too casual, or…whatever.

The point is that we do this all the time, don’t we? This happens more times than I can count with my creative ideas and those of my team. We get VERY excited on the front-end of something, but once we “make the purchase” we realize that what we were enamored with was novelty, not that the idea was the best creative solution. It looks like this:

1. Time is running short, and we know we need an idea.

2. A unique idea is advanced and it catches everyone’s attention. The person speaking the idea is a “loud voice” in the process, so everyone realizes that this is an idea to be considered.

3. We begin to – loosely – toss out ways the idea might work and drive toward a close.

4. We talk ourselves into the idea figuring that “someone else” will make it work. We rationalize the idea because we simply want the process to be over.

Folks, we have just bought ourselves a “totally sweet track jacket.” 

So here’s the deal: this happens all the time to me, and I’m sure it does to you as well. Answer this…

Does this happen to you? Can you think of an instance when it did? What happened? Why? 

And yes, the jacket is still sitting in my closet. Next to my gold lamay shirt. (That’s another post altogether.)

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