Are you one of those people who hits the snooze button every time the alarm rings? Maybe you take it a step further and are just sleep-walking through life… you know, going through the motions.
It's pretty easy to do, especially when it comes to something like the repetitive nature of work. That is, knowing what works… or thinking we do….
You can read more of my take on the subject on Shonali Burke's blog, Waxing Unlyrical. (Darn, if only I'd thought of that name first… but I do feel at home there…)
Here's a preview:
I remember a time not too long ago when I knew how to do my job really well. I’d get up in the morning, scour the media and go to work, confident that when a client would call, I could help them out. I knew what worked by doing; that is, based on success.
Soon I had a proven blueprint I could apply to virtually any situation that came my way, knowing that if I stayed with it, the results would be positive.
And (mostly) they were. Like many people who follow this model, my mantra became, “Because that’s the way we do things.”
Well, life goes on. We perform the same tasks over and over and over again until, at a certain point, they become rote (remember the multiplication tables we were forced to learn as kids – quick: what's 8 x 7?).
We're given problems – er, projects – and our sense memory blindly leads us through the steps. Sure we may add a spark of creativity but 'at the end of the day' (an expression I loathe, but one which illustrates the point) there is only one roadmap and we own it.
And before we know it, we get really good at sleepwalking.
To read more of this waxiness, please click here.
