If You Give an Adult Awareness

Have you ever read one of those books like “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” or “If You Give a Pig a Pancake“? They start with something simple but then each thing leads to another…and so on and so on. They are fun to read with kids because the imagination starts to run wild and usually the main character ends up either making a mess or getting into some hijinx.

I was clearing out some files in my office today and I came across a visual that I had drawn one day while attending a seminar. I can’t say for certain but I think it was my friend (and you could say “distant, secret mentor”) Jeff Turner that was delivering a keynote…or facilitating a session…or simply just riffing among friends over beers after one of the many events we have crossed paths at. I really cannot remember where I heard it…and it might not have even been Jeff.

For those who don’t know Jeff Turner, he is a well-known face in the real estate space. He is the President of Real Satisfied and has been a speaker/consultant for years to many in our space. He’s widely considered one of the “smart ones” in our business and even better than that, he’s a really good dude.

Anyway, this visual is kind of an adult version of “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” I call it…

“If You Give an Adult Awareness”

If you give an adult awareness, they start to understand who they are, what they are good at and maybe they start to figure out why they are here.

Once they figure those things out, they will probably have interactions with other people.

This will lead them to discover shared interests that can be leveraged, discussed or developed into bigger and better things.

When people find out they have a similar vision, idea or goal, it leads to engagement – both in real life or through the interwebs of social media and other on-line communities.

Two way communication and person-to-person engagement will create participation, sometimes as the leader, sometimes as the follower.

Either way the actions and execution happen, it will start and hopefully continue a conversation.

The more we talk…and more importantly, the more we listen to each other, the quicker we can identify our shared visions and values.

Once we identify and pay attention to what we have in common, we can begin to develop a foundation of trust.

If we can wake up each day and be a trusted individual, we start to become more aware of what we can accomplish. That’s when the awesomeness really begins.