It is easy to spend an entire day wrapped up in our own worlds — our full attention focused on our phone or laptop, thinking about what needs to be done and how to get through the day. We get caught up thinking about ourselves, without entirely noticing anything about the environment surrounding us.
Everyone is so concerned with themselves, they tend to forget we’re all sharing life together.
Last semester I took an advertising class that focused on creativity. My professor began the class by writing “Simply notice” on the board, this was followed by silence while everyone tried to digest what it meant. He then explained how these two words are one of the most important things to remember not only in advertising, but in life.
He encouraged us to observe people throughout the week. He said through observation we can learn an incredible amount about people and the world around us.
For the class, we would relate what we learned through observation to advertising in order to create more effective advertisements. But you don’t have to be interested in advertising to benefit from observing your environment.
Everyone is beautifully unique. It is so interesting to really try to understand people. What is their story? It’s much easier to just look at people judgingly and place them neatly in a box of stereotypes — this requires no effort and yields no rewards. The reason we organize people into stereotypes so much (often subconsciously) is because it’s actually really difficult to truly understand people.
I recently watched a YouTube video of a man reviewing cameras. Even though there wasn’t anything particularly special about this person, I couldn’t help but notice genuineness in his eyes, and a tone of kindness in his voice. Noticing can be this simple.
While I was observing the participants for a class this week, I noticed subtle moments where people’s faces would light up, and smiles would emanate joy. Even though this was a random group of people who were sitting in a room answering questions and reacting to videos, it impacted me somehow. Now, I’m not encouraging stalking, spying or any other creepy behavior, but rather, simply noticing. And if someone notices you back, smile at them or say “hi.” It’s not strange. If anything, it’s polite.Through the acknowledgment of those around us, we can better learn how to communicate and love with each other. We are all human.
The first step to beneficially noticing those around you is to notice yourself. You may not know that your default face could be rather grim — it might be good to become aware of your face and your posture. Notice the way you speak and the tone behind your voice. Vocal inflection has a huge impact on communication.
Once you become more aware of yourself, allow yourself to become aware of those around you. Everyone does something in a unique way — it could be the way they sneeze, or the way they laugh. The broad array of beautiful differences in people is amazing.
If you take a moment to notice, you might find something wonderful.
We all live on this earth, let’s live in awareness of each other.
Andrew Brand can be reached at [email protected]