My Theme for 2019: Awareness
What a great trend of writing a year in reflection post. As another year passes, I look back on 2019 and think about the lessons that I have learned. In 2018, I posted the top five lessons that stuck with me. Last year, it felt good to reflect on the last 365 days and see a pattern in my take-aways. 2019 had many lessons of its own for me. However, as I thought about those lessons it wasn’t the individual messages that stood out to me. It was an overwhelming theme of awareness.
Maybe this type of awareness comes with experience or age. I have felt like my mind and eyes have been opened to the complex layers of every day life. This year, instead of the top five lessons, I have narrowed down the top three categories where awareness has helped me gain a new perspective.
Work Awareness
Starting my career at Taylor Studios two years ago, I had to learn an incredible amount about the exhibit world. To do my job well, I need to know the ins and outs of the entire exhibit process. Once I had the basics down, I started to find the layers and complexity. I needed to really investigate to discover “the why” behind what Taylor Studios does. I also needed to investigate “the why” behind our client’s motives to create new exhibits. Knowing both of the reasons behind what the company does and what the client needs, helps me in finding the best solutions for success. To me, it is like finding the missing puzzle pieces that completes the picture.
Career Awareness
Work and Career may seem like the same topic. However, I define work as my current job and my career as my profession as a sales person. This year, I became aware that a job in sales isn’t the worst thing that could happen to me. I have struggled for 13 years to be comfortable with being in a sales role because of the negativity that follows the sales profession. Here a few reasons why I love the sales role:
- Helping People
- Solving Problems
- Networking
- Learning
- Teaching
Learning Awareness
I am a giant advocate of learning and continuous education. With learning awareness, I have shifted how I am learning. I have realized that there are more than the straight forward facts. There are layers in everything we do. Learning just the facts about history, such as dates and names, does not show the whole story. Being curious about the layers of a story help uncover even more information than just the facts present.
Awareness helps me learn and grow in a much different way. In the past, I have been absorbing knowledge and then using that knowledge to improve my life. The awareness that I have gained in 2019 makes me feel like my learning has evolved and expanded. It is often said that hind-sight is 2020, but I want to see my future, not the past, more clearly in the year 2020.