Daily life, whether you’re dealing with personal or business issues, is a whirlwind of activity. We spend time processing day-to-day, minute-by-minute events, while planning future steps and learning from past ones. We often go through all of these things without really being aware of what is happening around us. We need to realize that others have gone down similar roads and gained experiences and results that we can learn from if we take the necessary time to do our research, our homework.
The storehouse of information that comes with awareness can be a valuable tool, but it can also become overwhelming in our daily routine. Along with information, we need the ability to process it and apply it when we need to. Unfortunately, the connections and the “when we need to” are frequently missed, like the great answers we came up with after an interview. In business, our awareness skills are critical to success.
When there is an event or meeting, we need to recognize what is happening, realize how this could affect our position or business, figure out our options, pick one and apply it, and repeat this whole process, with adjustments, if necessary. The shorter the timeline between each of these steps, the better.
If we make a point of looking for something, we can usually find it: if we stand by the road and look for vehicles of a certain colour, we will find them, even though we had never noticed them before.
Information is everywhere if we become aware, if we make the effort to find out what is happening around us and in front of us. People’s intentions, thoughts and beliefs are present in every situation; we just have to use our awareness to notice the signs and signals.
We simply have to train ourselves to refine what we look for and listen for, and how we ask and respond to questions. Developing your awareness is more than a valuable business tool: it is absolutely critical for success.
