Oo that's nice!

It's been so long since my last bloody blog post it's a whole new year. 

Firstly before pressing on with the real matters here's a little update as to why.

I blogged about gut feelings way back in April and hey, it turns out my gut was right. So in September things went kinda belly up however, I have learnt a bucket load and I mainly learned the importance of being nice. 

This right here is the main point. Told you it was a little update. 

Nice is a word that often gets scoffed at. Being described as nice or having nice as a personal quality isn't always deemed to be a good thing and is quite frequently said with a sneer of sarcasm and derision. 

In primary school a teacher told my class to try not to use nice as a describing word - that whole year any creative piece of writing sounds like it's written by a little pompous twerp with a ludicrous and grandiose vision on the world. She would have loved that sentence.

Is being nice really a bad thing though? Nice, the place, looks pretty fantastic. Nice biscuits are alright, bit of a marmite biscuit if I'm honest.

To me, being nice is a huge, huge deal. Nice guys finish last is just bollocks. Well, okay, maybe they will finish last but they will finish with a bunch of people urging them on, without a bad word being said about them and will leave this world with a lifetime filled with love and support and happy memories. 

Did I ever mention for a little time I was an agent's assistant? I was, it was pretty damned awesome. 

Anyway, when telling people who they could work with, a writer, for example, we would happily describe all their past achievements - who they'd worked for: 'yes they wrote for them too, small world eh?', yet the added sentence 'and you know what? they're a really lovely, genuine nice guy' often sealed the deal.

People don't want to work with or for assholes. We've all done those summer jobs that aren't great pay and always seem to have the boss from hell. 

People don't want to be friends with nasty people: 'Hey this is my friend, he's a great guitarist, complete dickhead though.'

I'd be thrilled to be described by anyone as a nice person. If that was someone's lasting impression of me then I have done something right in this world. 

It's really easy to not give a damn, comment not compliment, not smile on the bus etc and somedays it's harder than others to find something nice to say about someone and even more so yourself. Give it a try though. It's 2014, still new into the year so why not try and find something nice to say about yourself and then a friend?

Nice might be overused sometimes. It may not be said with much esteem. I like trying being nice, it's a fucking excellent quality to possess and true nice people seem to be becoming fewer and far between.

After all, when have you heard someone say 'let's have a simply superb, wonderfully blended cup of tea?'

Spilling my Guts

'Listen to your gut' - Arthur Smith/Yakult told us in their 2011 ad campaign.

I think they meant more in a health wise way but I have no knowledge on such things so rather I'm going to go with the listen-to-your-gut-instinct angle.

I like logic and reason. It serves my brain well of how to get to a to b in the easiest, quickest fashion and how to prioritise problems so I don't curl up in a ball (although sometimes I'm less successful and curling in a ball helps). It tends to solve problems rather than complicate or create them. It means that I know where the forks are in the draw without looking and saves me having to play a game of hide and seek with the cultery.

Yet, I will throw out all logic and reason, stamp on it and grind it into ashes if my gut instinct pops up saying 'you know what Carys? It may seem illogical and I can't really give you a reason why you should go against your brain but... you should' and I normally do. It's been right more times than it's been wrong. And! my brain controls my gut so it's all intertwined!

My gut instinct has led me to decide off the cuff to do everything from stretching ears to writing something, applying for postions/jobs I wouldn't usually, talking to someone and being bold about it to buying another drink (even when the brain is hazily saying to stop). That last one is an example of one of the rare occasions it hasn't entirely been correct or resulted in a good outcome.

My gut led me to leave high school and go to a college where I didn't think I knew anyone, I decided one day and gut went 'do it'. It led me to introducing myself to some of the most important people in my life, it's led me to quitting a dead-end job in the hope something might take off, it's led me to cutting the bad people out of my life. It's wonderful, it frees up the brain to allow that to help me walk without tripping (another less successful aspect of my life) and making tea - you know, the really important daily life activities.

Recently, I feel appalled that I've completely betrayed my gut (sorry, little guy). I listened to my head, saw the reasoning and followed that route even though my gut was basically freaking out, shouting and hitting it's metaphorical head against a brick wall. It's really hard explaining to people why I've been hesitant because my gut is telling me to be. Why is it telling me to be? I have not the foggiest, it simply is and won't stop telling me, every waking moment - 'oh you're watching TV? Right well, let me interrupt by saying I don't think this is the smartest idea after all' or 'hey! you! tell brain to piss off with it's reason and it being the right thing to do, bloody troublemaker' etc.

Time will tell whether I have to apologise refusely to my gut, begging for forgiveness so that it will steer me correctly in the future, promising that I will forever listen to it and be in its debt.

Somewhere in the dark recesses, I think brain is secretly hoping that gut is right too...

After all Alexander Bain said 'instinct is untaught ability'.