Back in high school, I completed an assessment tool that indicated I was “good at” merchandising. Now as a high school student who did not think out of the box as I do now, I dismissed that assessment thinking “I don’t like business, marking or sales” That was my interpretation of “merchandising” from that limited perspective.
In the last few years I have begun to look at that initial assessment from a whole different perspective and I can see how clearly it has and does continue to show up in my life.
My new definition of merchandising is “the pulling together of ideas, information or objects to create something new or different”. Here are some examples of when that has shown up in my life:
As a Career Counselor I excelled at helping my clients craft resumes and hone their interviewing skills – pulling together their experiences so they became their markeing tool. As an artist I have always loved building mosaics – pulling together pieces of broken china, glass and ceramics to create an art piece. Now in my cooking I find I am drawn to pulling together whatever ingredients I have in my kitchen to come up with a delicious meal.
You see, deciding to look at this strength of mine in a diffent way, helped me find a common thread through many areas of my life that I previously thought were unrelated. It also serves as a “compass” to help me make choices of what activities to engage in and how to approach them.
What, in your life, do you want to look at differently? What effect do you think that would have on your life?