One of our favorite periodicals is “Scientific American Mind. “ It is always full of interesting articles of how people perceive things and process information . . . all good stuff for us to understand as professional communicators who are trying our best to relate to our prospects and clients.
One of the articles this month talked about how important it is for all of us to break our routines occasionally and expose ourselves to different situations and new information. This can take the form of traveling to a new place, taking a class completely outside our usual sphere of interest, partaking in meaningful volunteer work with a group of new people, etc. Evidently the “shock” of newness stimulates a creative rush as our minds reboot to figure out what to do with the new situation and the new information, and that is often when we develop new and improved ideas about our core work and life.
I can personally validate this research. Years ago during graduate school, I needed to take several fairly obscure courses to get my degree . . . religion, philosophy and the like. At first I resisted because I wanted to “get back to work,” but gradually I realized that when I relaxed and really got into the new material, I would begin to have creative flashbacks to my regular life/work and wound up writing down all sorts of new ideas during class. I began to look forward to the “creative rush” which came almost every time.
As salespeople, we need to be particularly supple and creative in dealing with a line of work that requires problem solving and innovation. Sometimes we need to step back to allow ourselves to step forward.
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