I know it may sound strange, but changing how you eat your banana really does hold an important lesson for us.
Think about how you were taught to eat a banana – if you were raised the way I was, you grasp the long stem in one hand and the body in the other. You then try to bend the stem so that it causes a split or a break at that one end. If you are lucky, you get a quick opening with no damage to the soft lovely fruit inside. That’s assuming the fruit is at the right ripe-ness to allow this without mushing the end of the banana or you bruising the body of it as you try to exert just the right amount of force. Of course (!) you could just use a knife to slice off the end – but you don’t always carry something sharp with you, do you? I have always preferred bananas that are not so ripe so this stem grip method left me unsatisfied as I invariably squished my banana! First world problem, I know.
The fact remains though that it never entered my mind to try to open the banana from the other end. Until I saw some random item on the internet about how monkeys eat bananas. I had to laugh at myself – instant solution to a silly annoyance. Small thing right?
But it got me to thinking – what other things in my life do I do habitually, unquestioning-ly, because I have always done them that way? What things are little annoyances that if I just approach them in a different light, will give me the same or better results with just a little change?
I’m struck by how many habits I have accumulated in my life and how many of them I just don’t question any more. I certainly don’t have the time or energy to question all my little foibles, but when it comes to meeting my clients’ needs though, it is worth asking the questions.
- What are my clients’ “pain points” that I can help them solve by viewing them from a different angle?
- Can I reframe the issues for my client so we can find a different perspective that will help shift things?
- Is there a way to tweak one’s approach to a challenge that will free energy up for something else?
- What fresh perspectives can I offer to my clients so they move towards their own desired successes?
As I am typically a curious person, I can come up with more questions along this vein. But let me ask you instead, what could you achieve if you start “eating your bananas” in a different way?
(This article was previously published at Online Web Admin, which is now Mindset Marketing Services)