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The Creative Benefits of Being Deeply Aware of Your Environment
5 stories that show the power of open-awareness
When John Reed, Citibank’s head of checking account business, took a vacation in 1976, he didn’t expect to have such an epiphany.
Sitting in a beach chair and enjoying the warm sun of the Caribbean, strange ideas came to him about an ever concerning issue: the profitability of personal banking.
Taking his notebook next to him, the ideas then flowed. He imagined on the same beach the concept of ATMs and email account balance verification, concepts that would revolutionize the modern banking system.
This story, although incredible, is not unusual: many creative people made discoveries in a state of open awareness, far from the focused concentration at work.
In Focus, Daniel Goleman shows especially that wandering minds are not opposed to focused attention, but on the contrary, increase your productivity.
Being more aware of the possibilities of your environment helps you select information better and notice more hidden details, which lead to unexpected discoveries.
It makes you broaden your attention, better control states of open imagination, strengthen your states of flow and increase your capacities for…
