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Ever take a moment to notice how you notice? The intention of this post is to just do that – enable you to notice how you notice. In the fast paced world that we live in nowadays, with our daily schedules full of appointments and what-not, it is hard to take a moment to reflect upon how all action really starts in us. Humans are hard wired – yes, biologically, we are hard wired to be a certain way whereby certain things exist as mechanistic behaviors (if you disagree, take notice of the next time you burp or have a bout of hiccups) and its hard to do anything about any of it, until we step aside and notice it, objectively. It all begins with noticing things – our surroundings, our behaviors… everything!
The next question that begs some attention then is: So, how do we notice? OR even better… how do we get better at noticing? The answer is in one simple word: Distinctions. The dictionary meaning of Distinction is “Something that Distinguishes”. With distinctions, humans learn to take notice and when we take notice, the things that seem to be happening in our background (i.e. where we don’t have much control on our actions) start happening in our foreground (i.e. we notice them). This applies to any field. Take, for example, playing soccer. Until one distinguishes (or learns the distinction) what is meant by “Off-Side” one does not know one way from the other and cannot take effective action in this domain.
The same holds for the field of Business. Until one distinguishes what “Business” means, one cannot effectively act in the domain of business. That is why people invest huge sums of money to get their MBA degrees, Project Management Certifications or Accounting diplomas and degrees… so that they can learn the distinctions that help them take effective action.
In whatever aspect of business you specialize in, commit to learning the relevant distinctions and you’ll start noticing the power of noticing.
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