Do You Listen?

As marketers you don’t often hear us talk much about listening to your gut or your intuition, or whatever you call it. Mindset is a favorite for some. Whatever you call it, it’s something we’ve been working on a lot over the course of the last year or so and although we haven’t talked much about it, it’s been noticed. Many people have noticed the changes that are occurring. We still have a long way to go, but it’s a journey right? One we’re very much enjoying right now too.

Listening is an important part of our lives and our businesses. It’s important to listen to clients, to prospects, to our staff, and to ourselves.

We all know the importance of listening to others, but how much attention do you give to that little voice inside? How often to you disregard what it tells you or ignore that feeling? If you’re like most of us, it’s too often.

Many of us are very tapped into our feelings and these little hints we get about the direction we should and should take, while others of us are still in the learning phase, and others may be unaware.

Where ever you are in your process, it’s certain that we all get these messages.

Here are a few instances you might be able to relate to that have happened recently:

1. We had the occasion to have dinner with friends while we were in Vermont recently and there was a winter storm coming in, which we were watching closely. Every part of me said stay put you’re going to get stuck and not be able to get back here. We went anyway, and we did in fact get stuck ove
ight and had to spend a fair amount of money to get us and the vehicle back to the house.

2. While grocery shopping recently, something told me to get some 7-Up, or ginger ale, which I don’t usually drink, so I disregarded the little inclination to pick some up. Within 24 hours I had my first, and hopefully my last, experience with food poisoning and very much wished I had that 7-Up that I walked right past.
3. Ever had an idea and dismissed it only to see a short time later somebody else doing that exact same thing and doing really well with it. Most of us have experienced this at one time or another.

These examples are really business related, but little things like that happen all the time and many times the fact that you ignored your intuition isn’t as quickly apparent as in the first two examples but if we spend some time thinking about it, we all get those little messages.

Probably most of us should spend more time listening to them. Or, we can continue to ignore them and go on being led by our heads instead of our hearts and our true feelings about things. This tends to be a harder way to do things.

It really all starts with awareness, and now that you are even a little more aware, hopefully you will pay just a little more attention to things like this when they happen…and see where that path takes you.