Enjoying your day?

More smart? Smarter, that’s it.

I guess I knew this, but I forgot. Some of us, and I suspect this includes many entrepreneurs and creative types, work way better under pressure. Not only that, we learn so much more when we suspect it’s vital, not when we’re feeling la-di-da. We also learn more when there are fewer people on hand to help us, like when those people are really busy doing their own thing that we’ve already assigned to them, or maybe they’ve thrown in the towel and moved to a faraway island. (And I’m sorry if I caused that… really I am. You know who you are.)

About learning under duress, stress and the rest. I’m of the generation that grew up not attached to a keyboard. No, I had to learn the hard way – as a young adult. And I’ve gotten pretty good at installing software, troubleshooting, even making an incompatible printer work with my Mac! (Four hours it took, four full hours!) For 2009 business planning in Dismal Economy World, I know it will be important to reach out to clients and prospects in a whole range of ways – from speaking engagements to media relations, mailings to direct personal outreach.

Even as a veteran marketer, I learn new skills when I have to perform unfamiliar hands-on tasks. Like running a slide projector (this is the stuff of nightmares for a verbal learner with no mechanical skills whatsoever). You’d think that the scary part of speaking in front of a large crowd would be… speaking. But for me it’s displaying that damnable PowerPoint presentation. IF I have one.

So, in the perpetual interest of finding something lovely in nearly any situation – just think how much you’ll learn this year! With so little support! How many new horizons! What an enhanced professional you’ll be. Me, too, I hope.