Wonderfuel Issue Number 9 – The joy of taking a vacation every day

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine somewhere that feels deeply joyful to you.

That place will be different for everyone. A beach, a mountain, or, quite often, simply being wrapped in a duvet with no demands being made of you.

This is easily mistaken for escapism, but it is actually something far more practical.

It is maintenance.

Most of us treat rest as a reward, something we believe must be earned once the work is finished and the pressure has eased. The difficulty is that this moment rarely arrives, which means recovery is endlessly postponed while mental load quietly accumulates.

A daily mental vacation works differently.

Just a few deliberate minutes stepping away from effort and stimulation, allowing the mind to settle somewhere calm and familiar. Not scrolling or distracting, but genuinely letting the nervous system breathe.

What makes this powerful is that the brain does not sharply distinguish between real and vividly imagined experiences. When the mind visits somewhere safe and pleasant, stress softens, perspective widens and clarity often returns.

You do not just feel better.

You see better.

Joy, it turns out, works far more effectively as an input than a reward, which is why it may be wiser not to wait for weekends or permission, but to take the vacation first and allow everything else to benefit from that state.

Want some more joy snacks?

// Quote of the week //

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// The founder diary //

That I am totally bonkers.

And perhaps even more bonkers for deciding it was a good idea to do it twice.

Back in 2021 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, a sentence that still feels strange to write, and during that time I found enormous support and comfort from the remarkable charity Prostate Cancer UK.

I always knew that if I was fortunate enough to recover, I wanted to give something back. The challenge was simply deciding what that “something” should be, a question that lingered quietly in the background until the answer arrived in a rather unexpected way.

In September 2022, while sitting on the sundeck of a boat moored along the Thames and doing what one typically does in such situations, namely supping beers and watching the world drift by , I noticed a steady stream of runners passing along the towpath.

One runner in particular caught my attention because he was wearing a Prostate Cancer UK t-shirt, which naturally prompted me to ask what on earth they were all doing.

“The Thames Path 100K ultra marathon,” he said. From Putney to Henley.

I was completely blown away by the idea that these people were not running one marathon, but effectively two and then casually adding another third for good measure.

I thanked him for supporting the charity that had supported me so deeply during a difficult period of my life.

His response was wonderfully direct:

“Don’t thank me. Be on the start line next year and give your own thanks.”

Which, when you think about it, is a very hard invitation to ignore.

I had a year to prepare and, crucially, plenty of time to recruit a wingman.

Enter my close friend Andre.

Fast forward to 8th September 2023 and, having shed more than four stone during training, I found myself standing on the start line with him, feeling a curious mix of excitement, nerves and mild disbelief at my own decision-making.

Naturally, it also happened to be the hottest day of the year.

By the time we reached 50 kilometres we were utterly broken, sitting there staring at the uncomfortable reality that we still had essentially the same distance again ahead of us.

“How the hell do we do this?” I asked.

Andre, displaying the kind of clarity that only exhaustion seems to produce, simply said: “We just start.”

And that single sentence neatly captures much of what the experience taught me.

First, that the first step is always the hardest, but once taken, momentum quietly begins to work in your favour.

Second, the extraordinary power of visualisation, an idea I borrowed from Jesse Itzler’s book Living with a Navy SEAL, where the importance of forming a clear mental picture of success is explored in a beautifully practical way.

And third, that the human spirit is far more resilient than we tend to believe. When you feel completely finished, you are very often nowhere near as done as you imagine.

What made the challenge even more surreal was learning, the night before the race while pre-registering, that my cancer had returned.

Andre turned to me and said, entirely sincerely, “You know you don’t have to do this.”

Two minutes earlier I did not have cancer.

Two minutes later I did.

Objectively, nothing had changed.

Subjectively, everything had.

In that moment it became very clear that this was no longer a physical challenge.

It was a mental one.

And it was exactly that.

I finished the ultra marathon, while 77 percent of participants did not, largely due to the brutal heat.

I beat the cancer again.

Two years later I returned and completed the ultra marathon a second time, improving my previous result by six hours.

Was I fitter?

Physically, not even remotely.

Mentally, I was a completely different person.

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// The joyful brand – Daise Beauty //

I was wandering through the supermarket recently, engaged in the entirely unglamorous task of picking up everyday essentials, when something unexpectedly stopped me in my tracks. This was mildly surprising given that I am very clearly not the intended audience for most beauty products, yet there I was, standing still and smiling for reasons I could not immediately explain.

The brand responsible was Daise Beauty.

What struck me was the immediacy of the reaction. There was no analysis or conscious evaluation, just a simple sense of delight that then led me to attempt the faintly ridiculous act of convincing my wife that she absolutely needed these products despite there being no practical reason whatsoever.

The appeal had very little to do with function and everything to do with feeling.

Daise occupies that lovely space where beauty and play comfortably coexist, communicating a sense of lightness, optimism and permission to experiment. From the daisy-shaped colourful packaging to the joyful product names and mood-led scents, everything signals approachability and self-expression.

Importantly, the joy does not feel superficial.

Beneath the playfulness sits genuine substance, with naturally derived formulas and pricing that encourages exploration rather than hesitation. What lingered with me most was the sense that joy was not something layered onto the brand, but clearly the starting point.

And when a brand can provoke that kind of response in someone so far removed from its core audience, it is difficult not to admire the clarity of the thinking behind it.

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// From the archives – BrandStrand by BeColourful //

BrandStrand^® is a strategic framework and brand tool developed by Emily Penny at BeColourful, born from a shared belief that brand strategy should be clear, practical, and creatively alive rather than overly complex or detached from business reality.

The premise is deceptively simple. Instead of viewing brands through categories or mechanics, BrandStrand^® centres on perceived value — the qualities and benefits that customers instinctively recognise, feel, and respond to.

At the heart of the framework sit eighteen distinct strands of perceived value, representing a spectrum of human needs, motivations, and desires. Together, these strands provide a structured yet flexible foundation for positioning, messaging, and creative expression across categories.

Developed within the BeColourful brand world, the visual identity reflects the intent of the system itself: energetic, distinctive, and designed for application. Each strand functions not merely as a strategic construct but as a living creative device capable of shaping narratives, headlines, and communications.

As Emily very generously described the collaboration:

“Sean gave my ideas visual form and been a patient sounding board and wonderful friend along the way.”

BrandStrand^® rests on a simple but important belief: strategy should not live quietly in presentations and documents.

It should be visible, usable, and embedded in the brand.

View project

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// Who or what is Wonderment? //

Wonderment is the joyful branding agency. We make businesses more effective by making their branding more affective. Wonderment isn’t just a name. It’s something wonderful, done on purpose. Something meant.

Got something exciting brewing, drop me and email let’s chat.

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