Stuck in Current Patterns of Thinking?
I was heading home from a business retreat this morning. Two colleagues were also heading to the airport and offered me a ride. Their flight was 3 hours earlier than mine, but I thought I’d take them up on their offer. I’d get to spend more time with them and I could get some work done at the airport. Everything went smoothly. Too smoothly! After an hour, I thought I’d check the monitor to confirm my gate and flight. I noticed two flights to my destination. One was a couple of hours earlier than mine. I thought I could get that one. As I checked the time, I realized the flight had just taken off! Why didn’t I think to check for an earlier flight as soon as I got to the airport?
The reason is I was stuck in one pattern of thinking. Our brains are very efficient. They are always looking to preserve energy. That means once a pattern of thinking is set, we tend to leave it in place. It’s a lot of energy to challenge assumptions and come up with new ways of thinking. This mental work is something our brains try to avoid. That means all of us begin to settle into comfortable ways of thinking. Unfortunately, that means we can sometimes miss opportunities to arrive at our destinations faster.
Why not take the time to re-examine how you approach your business? How do you prospect? Why? Why not try something different? How to you articulate your value? How do you know it’s resonating with your prospects? What exactly are you doing to create value for your customers? Are you sure? Sometimes it’s good to have a sounding board to challenge your thinking and to guide you to a faster and more effective approach.
The sooner we challenge our thinking, the higher the probability that we will find new opportunities and not miss what might be staring us in the face.