Getting real about yoga

"So you are, like, really relaxed and floating above the ground after your yoga classes?"

I get this question a lot when I tell people that I practice yoga. Depending on the person I either nod and smile cordially or begin to explain what yoga is and why I like it.

The thing is, I do not practice yoga to relax and float above the ground. And I don't really know any kind of yoga that will do that to you. Meditation and mindfulness will or is designed to, anyway (well, not the floating part). Yoga is designed to reinforce your muscles, sense of balance, flexibility, and posture. Yoga is all about strength.

Of course, there are more and less demanding types of yoga. Some are very physically taxing like Astanga and Iyengar, others focus more on synchronizing breathing and movements like Dynamic, Flow and in part Vinyasa.

They all have their specific benefits. I personally like to practice different kinds of yoga, mostly Iyengar and Vinyasa and sometimes Dynamic, because I get to use my muscles and body in different ways. But common for all of them is that I've gained flexibility and strength over the years. I can do more sit-ups and push-ups than most women my age (or younger for that matter) and have achieved greater flexibility.

So forget the old-fashioned, stuck-in-the-hippie-age, faulty perception of yoga. Or better yet, try it out yourself.

Newcomers will benefit from starting with gentle Dynamic yoga that will help warm up muscles and joints over time and ease you into the yoga practice. Then, take a step further with Vinyasa to challenge your strength, flexibility and balance. After a while, move forward with Iyengar to build up your stamina.

Just don't expect to wander around in a heavenly buzz or float above the ground.

Jens Astrup took this photo. And photoshopped it too.

Remember the basics

Don't worry so much about being a brand or being 'authentic'. Be true to yourself and good to your customers. That's what matters.

The experience enigma

Brand experience is the experience of the brand that companies want to give. Customer experience is the experience of the brand that customers get.
Unfortunately, these two are often not the same.

Widespread paradox

Companies with the most data about their customers find it most difficult to use it.

Think big, think different - and then do it

"The purpose of this design is to create a low-cost portable computer so useful that its owner misses it when it's not around – even if the owner isn't a computer freak..." This is how the vision of the Macintosh was described in an internal Apple memo in January 1980 (Source: Rolling Stone, 1984).

Funny enough, this is exactly how I felt about my Macintosh a few years later - and still do, by the way. It wouldn't have passed as a 'proper' positioning or mission statement at most companies yet it's obviously so much more precise and useful.

Key to the success is of course also the fact that the Apple team was able to actually execute against it. It was never 'just words'.

Why Steve Jobs was the model CEO

"Steve Jobs did what a CEO should: Hired and inspired great people; managed for the long term, not the quarter or the short-term stock price; made big bets and took big risks. He insisted on the highest product quality and on building things to delight and empower actual users, not intermediaries like corporate IT directors or wireless carriers. And he could sell. Man, he could sell."
(Walt Mossberg on Steve Jobs, AllThingsD Oct 5, 2011)

But there is one more thing: He was like a focus group of one, he thought like the ideal Apple customer,  only he was always two years ahead.

All that for a 1$ annual salary.

We will forever wonder what else he could have done.

What Steve Jobs and Michelangelo have in common

According to Fast Company Steve Jobs gave the following business advice to Nike a few years back when they launched the iPod/Nike collaboration: "Get rid of the crappy stuff".

"I expected a little laugh," Nike president and CEO Mark Parker says of the exchange. "But there was a pause and no laugh at the end."

Jobs' comment is akin to one of my favorites, namely Michelangelo's when he was asked how he could create a sculpture as magnificent as David. He said, “I carve away everything that isn’t David.”


(This post was originally published in April, 2010)