Science Fair and The Unlikely Business Lesson
The highest form of flattery or your achilles heel?This past weekend, I was reading my son's science fair report. Little did I know that Parker's project would be a lesson for me in business. But as I was reading through the hypothesis and the results it was like a light was going off. Like shining and flickering and jumping up and down type of light going off. One that I think all of us could benefit from!A little backstory, Parker has been interested in the effects of outside noise on your ability to study and learn new tasks. Maybe it is from my constant reminders that you will never retain Honors Geometry material with The Rolling Stones blaring in the background! So he built his Honors Biology project around this theory. He tested for three weekends, age group after age group. Each one subjected to 5 tests. Shockingly (insert sarcasm) subjects scores plummeted when subjected to outside noise. The ability to concentrate, retain and focus was decreased markedly in each exercise that tested for it. In some cases people froze unable to move forward with the required task because of the background noise. So how does this tie into Senior Photography and YOUR business????Well you see that is where the light bulb was going off. Outside noise, chatter, distractions, taking your eye off the ball...these are all deterring us from reaching our goals. And in some cases keeping us stuck. The minute we stop and listen to what "so and so is doing", we lose sight of the big picture...our picture. If we are stuck constantly wondering what others are doing, how are we going to move forward? That is the goal right? To grow our businesses?So after reading a 15 year old's wisdom on optimal retention and concentration (while he is finishing the graphs listening to Hendrix-some lessons are hard fought!), I stood back and checked my lane because that is where I have tried hard to stay and will continue to stay. Yes outside chatter and noise enter from time to time. However, when I actually stop to listen to it, I am doing precisely that...STOPPING! We are all guilty of hearing the white noise but the important thing is to walk away, say thanks for letting me know and filing it away-put it as a moment of clarity in your memory bank and move forward. Yes keep moving. Do not get stuck. And most importantly DO NOT STOP to listen. You will always be copied and your work compared. Just remember to be authentic and real. I have said it before and I will say it again "Innovation not Imitation!" Do you and you will shine bright in the end.I would love to hear how you will be cutting out the outside distractions and forging ahead in your business! Drop me a line at info@seniorstyleguide.comxoxo,Vickie