Algonquin College held its monthly Third Thursday speech event on Jan.17, where speaker Robert Smith delivered his philosophy to those attending in the DARE District lobby.
Smith, an author and entrepreneur, is currently the creative director of his Ottawa-based branding agency, Greenmelon.
Speaking to a crowd of about 50 people, Smith focused on the theme, “Refresh”, and how to effectively change bad habits entering 2019. He emphasized the point that although making resolutions for improvement in January is completely arbitrary, there are lots of benefits to doing it the right way.
“There are little things that you can do today that are not going to completely disrupt your life, but that can provide a little bit of change,” said Smith. “A refresh ensures that you won’t become complacent or too comfortable. Complacency is where nothing is necessarily wrong, but nothing is good either.”
Throughout the talk, Smith was clear in his message of being realistic about self-help ideas. “It’s not a reboot, it’s not a restart…it’s incremental,” he said. “We’re not just taking some Febreze and making our life smell like a lovely meadow in spring.”
Smith is the author of the book The Frankenstein Condition (2017). The book focuses on the style of self-evaluating that people do that can often cause self-identity issues, and how social media compounds this.
The Third Thursday speaking series is being organized by the AC Hub starting September 2018, and this is the fourth event in the series.
“We’re all about turning spaces into places,” said AC Hub Events officer Susan Pridmore. “We bring local speakers in from Ottawa that shape our city and help us shape our dialogue.”
The next event for Third Thursday is scheduled to take place on the fourth Thursday of next month, Feb. 28. The theme for February’s talk will be centred around Shopify.