Take the courage to clear some space and use it as a means to move forward…
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Take the courage to clear some space and use it as a means to move forward…
Information overload! We find ourselves overwhelmed by the mountains of information delivered to us in its various forms. We experience a major overload of materials, be it clothing, books, and/or documents and if we dare take a look inside the storage spaces, in our offices or in our homes, we are more than a little shocked to see exactly how much space we have allocated to hoarding “stuff”. We continue to keep hold of a lot of things, just in case we need them. Letting go of things seems unusually difficult for us humans. Don’t you think?
Whilst working with my coaching clients on the process of new orientation, I find myself having to deal with the topic of information overload on a daily basis. Information overload, whether on CVs, in motivation letters or social media or during a job interview, is one of the most common obstacles for job seekers. In most cases job seekers want to deliver as much information as possible, in an attempt to ensure that employers are aware as to how competent they are and how much valuable experience they have and can bring to the table. In doing so, they often neglect or forget to focus on the information required or on key facts and figures. This often leads to missed opportunities.
At the end of 2015 I decided to order some rather special Christmas cards. Personally, I still prefer to send my appreciation and good wishes by means of printed cards rather than by online cards or e-mails. Once my order arrived I am sad to admit that I was rather disappointed. The cards did not meet my expectations at all. That can happen. Immediately I knew that I wouldn’t ever want to send those cards to anyone. I needed to think of an alternative. I chose to buy nice plain cards and started to think of how I could personalise these plain cards and make them attractive and worth sending. There was one thing that was important to me - I did not want these cards to be overloaded with a lot of text. I decided to opt for a minimalist design and made the bold decision to leave the front cover of the card totally blank. My personal wishes and messages, I wrote on the second page. Being confronted with a blank front cover, the recipient would only be able to read my message by opening the card. In this way I was giving them a moment, a fraction of time, one or two seconds, some space, before delivering my message.
Valuable space is all too often taken up by information overload and this denies us room for reflection, for visions, dreams, ideas and projects. This is rather sad. We are, however, masters of our own space and able to minimize information overload and free up space for anything new, valuable, exciting and more enriching, should we chose to do so.
Take the courage to clear some space and use this as a means to move forward, to focus, to create, to achieve and more...