![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/In-a-Rut-199x300.jpg\" "\\"In")
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It happens to the best of us. We start out in our adult lives and careers wide-eyed, excited and eager to take in as much as we can; we\u2019re hungry to try new things, we tackle challenges of all sorts and do what we can to forge ahead and grow in whatever it is we do. And grow we do. Along the way, as we grow, we refine our expectations and we focus \u2013 often leading to some level of success that comes pre-packaged with some level of comfort. We settle in, we settle down and before we know it we\u2019ve gone from being bold, innovative, forward-thinking and creative to, well, being lame and out of touch \u2013 successful perhaps at a handful of highly focused things \u2013 but lame and out of touch in everything else.<\/p>\n
Lame and out of touch is not how anyone has ever reached any level of success but it\u2019s a sure-fire way to not reach that next level! The good news is that no matter how narrowly focused and settled in you\u2019ve become, all it takes is a few steps outside of the safety of what\u2019s become familiar to you to find inspiration and reconnect with the people who you do what you do for. And you can do it with the media that surrounds you every single day!<\/p>\n
Tune In \u2013 To Something Different<\/strong><\/p>\n If the tuning knob on the radio in your car is frozen in place from lack of use it might be time to try something new. If you were really into rock back in college then why are you locked into \u201csoft hits\u201d today? Seriously, change it up a little. Try an alternative station or even an oldies station \u2013 just try something that\u2019s related to what you\u2019ve fallen into listening to all the time but yet different! You\u2019d be surprised how much more is out there that you\u2019ll not only like, but that will give you fresh appreciation for something that\u2019s become stale. That new invigoration will find its way into professional inspiration and help you be more in-tune with more people in your audience.<\/p>\n Read More \u2013 More Down to Earth, That Is<\/strong><\/p>\n For some reason people tend to think that maturity and success must be accompanied with reading and generally being informed on a more, how can I put this nicely, exclusive, level. Reading upper-crust publications like The New Yorker<\/em> and The Atlantic<\/em>\u00a0and listening to NPR is great and all; they\u2019re all excellent sources of very intelligent information, but every now and again it\u2019s good to get down and dirty! Read popular websites, blogs, newspapers and publications \u2013 they\u2019re popular and exist for a reason \u2013 because tons of people read them! You don\u2019t have to stop reading National Geographic<\/em> for a steady diet of Cosmopolitan<\/em>\u00a0but there is no better way to stay in touch with what\u2019s popular with the most people than the media that covers it. You\u2019ll be surprised how what you learn from popular trends can lead to innovation and success \u2013 and how easy it is to do with everyday popular publications!<\/p>\n All Those TV Channels You Never Watch \u2013 Watch Them<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re like most people you pay for a couple hundred cable or satellite TV channels and watch about a half a dozen on a regular basis. If this is true, you\u2019ve again fallen into what\u2019s comfortable and what works for you. Well, there\u2019s a boatload of fresh information, inspiration and invigoration to be had on those channels your channel surfing thumb has never stopped on. If there wasn\u2019t a sizable audience of people as interested in what these channels show as you are in ESPN, CNN and the broadcast networks they wouldn\u2019t exist. That means there\u2019s a whole world out there \u2013 made up of a huge portion of the audience at large \u2013 that you can tap into for inspiration. Plus, who knows, you might even end up finding something new that you like!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It happens to the best of us. We start out in our adult lives and careers wide-eyed, excited and eager to take in as much as we can; we\u2019re hungry to try new things, we tackle challenges of all sorts and do what we can to forge ahead and grow in whatever it is we do. And grow we do. Along the way, as we grow, we refine our expectations and we focus \u2013 often leading to some level of success that comes pre-packaged with some level of comfort. We settle in, we settle down and before we know it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,7],"tags":[83,650,1031,1179,1194],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9012,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions\/9012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.123print.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}