Make Time to Think!
People who invest lots of time behind the wheel tend to have more time to think. As an activity, thinking is highly underrated.
Some of my best ideas arise while driving.
If you are a customer service professional, I bet your job is stressful and that you’re up to your ears in work. Do you have a long term plan for yourself, or are you at the mercy of life’s ebb and flow? Stop and consider your future plans.
The following story is a metaphor for today’s hectic lifestyle:
Two adventurers drove across a desert. They had just enough fuel to make the trip in a straight run from where they were, to their destination.
The vehicle was a convertible. The driver held the steering wheel tightly, his eyes focused ahead, and the wind in his hair.
The passenger saw a tall rock and asked the driver to stop. “Let’s get a different perspective on where we are going,” he said. From the top of the rock, he was alarmed to see a wide chasm in the land – straight ahead.
The chasm, which wasn’t visible from the ground, looked a hundred miles wide and it would require re-routing their trip. Learning about this now was good fortune, because they were three-quarters into the journey. They wouldn’t have had the fuel to make it.
Stumbling upon the chasm by surprise would have meant being stranded somewhere in the middle. Knowing that they did not have enough fuel to drive the detour around the chasm, they decided to regroup and make a new plan.
Many customer service professionals don’t believe they have enough time to stop, get a different perspective and make a new plan. They have so much work to do that stopping, even for a minute or two, seems like a waste of their precious time.
Nonsense! I urge you to reserve more time for daily thought. As an activity, thinking is highly underrated.
Thinking is a choice. Therefore, choose constructive thoughts.
Stumbling upon the chasm by surprise would have meant being stranded somewhere in the middle. Knowing that they did not have enough fuel to drive the detour around the chasm, they decided to regroup and make a new plan.
Our Top 3 Customer Service Training Resources
Training & Managing System
Click above image to learn more.
Training System
Click above image to learn more.
Contractor Value Bundle
Click above image to learn more.
Take Steve's Online Courses
Call me at 610-853-9836 to schedule a site visit for employee training and consulting!
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Great message and advice Steve. That is why I think it is very important get out of bed each day early enough to have some think time! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks David. You are correct about early morning thinking – great use of that solitude.
Steve,
Did you tape your meeting last night on maintenance agreements.
Would like to have access to them.
Thanks
Thanks Sonny, for writing. I’ll send you a separate message on this. -Steve
Steve – what a concept….thinking….I agree we need to do more of it! Love the concept of your new blog. The Harvesters, now 6 of us, are taking 3 days in sunny California to, “think, to plan” in June. Hey, I’m just wondering…I know the folks on the trip saw the chasm but did they ever make it around the chasm without running out of gas? All the best and hope to see you at NSA in Orlando this year.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the reminder that time set aside for thinking always pays off. I used to spend a lot of time on the road for sales calls. All that thinking time helped me start a business, and helped me improve it as the business grew. On those days when I needed inspiration while traveling, I’d listen to seminars on CD. Today I don’t travel, but I still set aside early morning and evening for quiet, thinking time. Every day. Great pointers!