Creativity can either be born in you or you can work at it. I always thought that there are either creative people or uncreative people. I always felt that I was one of those uncreative people. This can be challenging, especially when I am in a profession and trying to work my way up in a profession that needs a lot of creativity. So why did I choose this? I like the field that I am in. Even though I never felt too creative, I enjoyed what I was learning and looked forward to being a part of it.
I have learned that creativity can also be learned, its simply called exercising your mind. During the three day seminar I just attended, our instructor would start the class, as well as after every break with a contest. We were paired up with one other person and he asked up various trivia questions from a game called mind trap. An example of a question was this.... Forward I'm heavy, backward I'm not... What am I? I'll let you think about this for a minute....
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Give up yet? The answer is a TON... Forward its heavy backwards its N-O-T. My partner and I (also the two newest and youngest members of the group!!) did not ever win a prize in this game. At the beginning of the seminar no one was getting any of the questions right. By the end, people were getting more and more questions right. The point of this game was not to simply entertain us in the middle of our intense workshop, but to simply exercise our minds. These types of questions forces you to "think outside of the box." The more and more you work on activities like this, the more you creative you will become. I also learned another technique of creativity from someone who was an artist. I was talking to her one day and I said, i wish I was creative like that. She told me different things that they would do in her art classes to practice creativity. One was they were told to come up with some type of object, for example and apple. They were then told to draw and apple 100 different way.... for example it could be a picture of a simple apple, apple of your eye, apple tree... etc. The point of this exercise is that within those 100 drawings that you made there should be at least one original idea.
My new goal, is to work on these types of exercises. I think that it will not only help with my creativity, but like I said, it will help me to learn how to "think outside of the box" so that when a problem arises I will be able to think on my feet and act quickly. I'm hoping that with all of these new techniques that I have learned, that I actually apply them to my job so that I can improve.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
is college teaching us anything?
A little over a year ago I graduated from college after 4 years. Soon after I began my life in the work force and here i am today. Right from the start I felt lost. I felt like i was in a completely different world, unable to understand what was going on around me. I am in what is known as the "real world," quite different from what college is. The lessons that i learned in college could not always be put to use in the real world. College did not prepare me on how to deal with dsr's and customers. It did not prepare me on how to deal with working towards a sales goal one month and a completely different one the next. It did not prepare me to know what to do when a customer is out of a product that is no longer in stock and needs to get some now. I have felt so many times over the past year, that college has simply not prepared me for many of the situations and challenges that i have been faced with this last year. I expected all of this. I expected that the lessons we learn in the classroom are going to be somewhat different when being applied to "real life" situations.
Little did i know, however that even the lessons that i learned in school can be somewhat outdated and incorrect. This entire week i have been taking part in a customer oriented selling workshop seminar. It is to "refresh" the minds of the older sales rep as well as teach the new sales reps the ways of selling. I was excited about the class because you can always learn something new, and especially being in a class with others who have had much more experience than me. Now, Kraft has not done the best job at offering any type of formal training, so when the opportunity arose, i jumped on it. I was also interested, because since i did just come from college and have taken similar classes in college i felt prepared. I was used to the classroom and homework and exams so I thought this class would be a great refresher for me while gaining knowledge from the other experienced sales people at Kraft. Only a few days into the class and I am utterly shocked at what i have learned. I have learned more in the past few days that i did an entire semester at my sales class in college. Not only that but the techniques that I have been learning in this class are completely negating the lessons and techniques that I originally learned in my college class. Apparently, the lessons that I was learning in college were 'outdated' and more of the old school style of sales. Times have changed, the customer has changed, and therefore our sales skills must changed. This would be fine if I attended college 10 years ago, but I'm talking 1 year since i took this class, it shouldn't be this outdated. I thought that coming right out of college and into the job that I have would give me somewhat of an advantage because I just left school and learned these lessons and skills and have fresh ideas. Apparently, what I learned in school were not "fresh" ideas, but old ones that are outdated and not practical anymore. This slightly disturbs me because, why go to school if everything you learned there, you are simply going to be told that you learned the wrong way of doing things. The one class that should help me the most in my line of work has actually hurt me, since it taught me the wrong skills.
What are students learning in college today? I'm beginning to question if I learned anything useful that can be applied to the real world. I'm beginning to question if I learned anything at all. I'm beginning to wonder why so much money was spent on an education that is teaching me the wrong skills. So what is the answer to all of this? I'm not sure, but here is my guess. College cannot fully prepare us for what we are going to be doing with our lives after. It cannot predict what type of job we will be in and what type of situations we will be faced with. College can only give you the platform of which to learn by. It can only give you the basic fundamentals to your degree of study. College can give you a glimpse into what the "real world" might be like, but it cannot tell you exactly what it will be like. That is one of the biggest lessons I have learned this past year. I have to take the skills that I learned in college and be able to use them with the new skills that I am learning today.
I just spent three whole days in an intense workshop concentrating on Customer Oriented Selling. This class was there to give you the skills to use when going out into the "real world situations." Like college, it cannot give you exactly what is going to happen, it can only give you the skills to know how to handle different situations. The class was intense and definitely hard at times. We learned the material and then did role playing with video cameras and then discussed what was done right, what was done wrong, and what can be done to improve yourself. At the end of this course, however there was no final exam like in college. That is because the final exam is the actual work. Its going out and making the sales call and hopefully being successful in the process. Its taking the skills that were just learned and applying them to real life situations. The instructor was amazing. I had never had a better teacher in my entire life. He helped me immensely. He taught me the skills that I need to learn and pointed out the skills that I have to improve at (one being listening, I did everything that I was supposed to, by the book- asking questions, but he told me that I was not listening to my customer. I was simply moving on to the next question on my list) That is something that I am going to be working on over the next few weeks active listening. At the end of the course he asked for everyones opinion. And the general consensus was that it was hard, painful and he replied- Thats good because learning is painful. Learning is through experience and if the experience is always easy, then what exactly are you learning? Overall I am happy that I took part in this workshop. I look forward to the many more Kraft training sessions that go on especially with this teacher. I felt that he was able to understand not only my needs but everyones needs. He was able to understand what everyone needed to learn and how they needed to learn. That is one of the many mistakes that teachers make, they have their way of teaching and that is it. They don't understand that each student learns in a different way and that you have to be flexible to adapt to their learning technique.
Little did i know, however that even the lessons that i learned in school can be somewhat outdated and incorrect. This entire week i have been taking part in a customer oriented selling workshop seminar. It is to "refresh" the minds of the older sales rep as well as teach the new sales reps the ways of selling. I was excited about the class because you can always learn something new, and especially being in a class with others who have had much more experience than me. Now, Kraft has not done the best job at offering any type of formal training, so when the opportunity arose, i jumped on it. I was also interested, because since i did just come from college and have taken similar classes in college i felt prepared. I was used to the classroom and homework and exams so I thought this class would be a great refresher for me while gaining knowledge from the other experienced sales people at Kraft. Only a few days into the class and I am utterly shocked at what i have learned. I have learned more in the past few days that i did an entire semester at my sales class in college. Not only that but the techniques that I have been learning in this class are completely negating the lessons and techniques that I originally learned in my college class. Apparently, the lessons that I was learning in college were 'outdated' and more of the old school style of sales. Times have changed, the customer has changed, and therefore our sales skills must changed. This would be fine if I attended college 10 years ago, but I'm talking 1 year since i took this class, it shouldn't be this outdated. I thought that coming right out of college and into the job that I have would give me somewhat of an advantage because I just left school and learned these lessons and skills and have fresh ideas. Apparently, what I learned in school were not "fresh" ideas, but old ones that are outdated and not practical anymore. This slightly disturbs me because, why go to school if everything you learned there, you are simply going to be told that you learned the wrong way of doing things. The one class that should help me the most in my line of work has actually hurt me, since it taught me the wrong skills.
What are students learning in college today? I'm beginning to question if I learned anything useful that can be applied to the real world. I'm beginning to question if I learned anything at all. I'm beginning to wonder why so much money was spent on an education that is teaching me the wrong skills. So what is the answer to all of this? I'm not sure, but here is my guess. College cannot fully prepare us for what we are going to be doing with our lives after. It cannot predict what type of job we will be in and what type of situations we will be faced with. College can only give you the platform of which to learn by. It can only give you the basic fundamentals to your degree of study. College can give you a glimpse into what the "real world" might be like, but it cannot tell you exactly what it will be like. That is one of the biggest lessons I have learned this past year. I have to take the skills that I learned in college and be able to use them with the new skills that I am learning today.
I just spent three whole days in an intense workshop concentrating on Customer Oriented Selling. This class was there to give you the skills to use when going out into the "real world situations." Like college, it cannot give you exactly what is going to happen, it can only give you the skills to know how to handle different situations. The class was intense and definitely hard at times. We learned the material and then did role playing with video cameras and then discussed what was done right, what was done wrong, and what can be done to improve yourself. At the end of this course, however there was no final exam like in college. That is because the final exam is the actual work. Its going out and making the sales call and hopefully being successful in the process. Its taking the skills that were just learned and applying them to real life situations. The instructor was amazing. I had never had a better teacher in my entire life. He helped me immensely. He taught me the skills that I need to learn and pointed out the skills that I have to improve at (one being listening, I did everything that I was supposed to, by the book- asking questions, but he told me that I was not listening to my customer. I was simply moving on to the next question on my list) That is something that I am going to be working on over the next few weeks active listening. At the end of the course he asked for everyones opinion. And the general consensus was that it was hard, painful and he replied- Thats good because learning is painful. Learning is through experience and if the experience is always easy, then what exactly are you learning? Overall I am happy that I took part in this workshop. I look forward to the many more Kraft training sessions that go on especially with this teacher. I felt that he was able to understand not only my needs but everyones needs. He was able to understand what everyone needed to learn and how they needed to learn. That is one of the many mistakes that teachers make, they have their way of teaching and that is it. They don't understand that each student learns in a different way and that you have to be flexible to adapt to their learning technique.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
some thoughts and an interesting story
This weekend was very uneventful for me. I'm trying to get caught up on some work right now since I have a busy week ahead of me. Its been getting much colder out lately and I'm slowly realizing that summer is almost over. The summer definitely flew by. But then again so has this entire year. I was talking to my boss the other day and she said to me can you believe its almost been a year? I really can't. I feel like I have definitely come along way since I started with Kraft, but I also feel like i still have a long way to go. Theres just so much more that I need to learn and practice to become completely comfortable in my position. I'm not too worried though, because someone once told me that it takes at least 2-3 years to understand the company completely. I still have time, and everyday I'm learning new things. It can get frustrating at times, when I want to prove to everyone that I am good, that I do have what it takes. Its hard to do that when I get into situations that I can't get myself out of. Its hard to do those things when I don't fully understand everything that I'm supposed to understand. I know that in time, things will work out. I simply need to be more patient and trusting that things will eventually fall into place. I've always been one of those people who has to learn through experience. The mistakes I've made, I can only learn from, but my problem is that its frustrating making those mistakes. I want to prove to everyone right now that I'm good at this job, but its so hard when I'm still learning this business.
With the cold weather coming in, I've planned one more great trip before the summer is officially over. I'm going to San Fransisco. Its a place that I have always wanted to visit, so I'm thrilled to finally get to see this city. I've heard it is very cultural, which is why I'd much rather see this city than LA. We'll see how it goes, basically I'm spending the first two days by myself exploring the city while my friends work, and the last few days at Yosemite Park with Lacy to go hiking. Its a small trip, but I'm sure that it will be worth it.
Over the weekend I was reading a story in a magazine about this girl that started whateverlife.com. I've been to this site myself before. It was started as a site for myspace layouts and has since expanded to much more. The interesting thing about this girl and her website, is that it was started two years ago in the kitchen of this 15 year old girls house. Since then she has dropped out of high school, bought a house, and makes over $70,000 a month. Its simply incredible. At age 15 to have that kind of talent to start something like this from nothing. She never had any full training and it started out as a hobby for her and her friends. She now employs her friends in her office that is in the basement of her house. She is only 17 and is not even in control over her own money. The courts ordered a lawyer to be in charge of her money since she is still a minor, neither her or her parents are allowed access. She is only allowed a certain monthly allowance unless other permission is given. She was offered 1.5 million dollars for the site, but she turned it down stating that she started it from scratch and wants to see how far it can really go. If it were me, I probably would have taken the money, but hey thats just me. Anyways that was just a little story I thought I'd share with all of you, since i found it very interesting.
Goodnight.
With the cold weather coming in, I've planned one more great trip before the summer is officially over. I'm going to San Fransisco. Its a place that I have always wanted to visit, so I'm thrilled to finally get to see this city. I've heard it is very cultural, which is why I'd much rather see this city than LA. We'll see how it goes, basically I'm spending the first two days by myself exploring the city while my friends work, and the last few days at Yosemite Park with Lacy to go hiking. Its a small trip, but I'm sure that it will be worth it.
Over the weekend I was reading a story in a magazine about this girl that started whateverlife.com. I've been to this site myself before. It was started as a site for myspace layouts and has since expanded to much more. The interesting thing about this girl and her website, is that it was started two years ago in the kitchen of this 15 year old girls house. Since then she has dropped out of high school, bought a house, and makes over $70,000 a month. Its simply incredible. At age 15 to have that kind of talent to start something like this from nothing. She never had any full training and it started out as a hobby for her and her friends. She now employs her friends in her office that is in the basement of her house. She is only 17 and is not even in control over her own money. The courts ordered a lawyer to be in charge of her money since she is still a minor, neither her or her parents are allowed access. She is only allowed a certain monthly allowance unless other permission is given. She was offered 1.5 million dollars for the site, but she turned it down stating that she started it from scratch and wants to see how far it can really go. If it were me, I probably would have taken the money, but hey thats just me. Anyways that was just a little story I thought I'd share with all of you, since i found it very interesting.
Goodnight.
more detailed- japan
well i was waiting for sara to post a blog about our trip to japan, because frankly i was way to lazy to write out every detail of the trip... so here it is so far (she still isn't finished, but i will keep you up to date.)
Tokyo- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/tokyo-with-julie.html
Kyoto part 1- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/busy-buses-and-incoherent-japanese.html
Kyoto part 2- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/takao-district-in-kyoto.html
Kyoto part 3- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/july-1st-continued.html
Kyoto part 4- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/sakura-wind.html
Nara- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/nara-japans-first-capital.html
Miyagi (last of the trip!!)- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/julie-in-miyagi.html
Tokyo- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/tokyo-with-julie.html
Kyoto part 1- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/busy-buses-and-incoherent-japanese.html
Kyoto part 2- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/takao-district-in-kyoto.html
Kyoto part 3- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/july-1st-continued.html
Kyoto part 4- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/sakura-wind.html
Nara- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/nara-japans-first-capital.html
Miyagi (last of the trip!!)- http://vagabondsara.blogspot.com/2007/08/julie-in-miyagi.html
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
ramblings about nothing.....
I'm starting to get back into my normal life again... I'm trying to keep myself busy because when i'm not busy i tend to get very stir crazy. Laying around, relaxing on the couch is only fun for the first few hours, then i start to feel like a waste of life. So, i started running again, i'm still working my way back up to 4 miles, but so far so good. i am trying to eat healthy again and not so much junk food. The only reason I was eating junk food was because i was so busy and too lazy to bother with good healthy food. its a lot easier to run to a fast food place than prepare a nice and healthy meal that takes hours to cook and only 5 mins to eat. BUT, i'm trying this again regardless.
My summer is going fairly well. I've been cleaning a lot and refocusing my life back on work. I'm trying to get more organized. When i'm organized i feel much more at ease with my life and thats how i like it. My goal over the next few months is to work on saving my money. I've been putting money away and I haven't been shopping TOO much. But, my biggest problem is food. I eat out soo much. I can't help it. Its just so easy to go to a restaurant and get some take out than eat food. Even when i try to eat healthy, i just go to a restaurant and buy something healthy there. That, my friends is truly sucking up all of my money. So, new plan. Stop eating out. I have so many things that I want to do and want to buy, but I can't keep doing this when I eat out 2 meals a day every day. It just can't possibly work that way. With that said, I'm going to san fransisco in a couple of weeks and I couldn't be more excited. I've been wanting to go there for as long as i remember. I'm going to tour the city by myself the first two days, have dinner with my friend nick and then lacy and I are going to Yosemite park to go hiking! I can't wait!
August is half way over. I can't believe how fast this summer has gone by. I seriously feel like I left for Japan just last week. I have no idea where the time has gone. Luckily fall is always fun since its filled with so many holidays. I look forward to them. The holidays are my favorite time of year. Mainly because i love spending the time with my family. It just makes me feel great when everyone gets together and can just have a relaxing time, laying around, doing absolutely nothing but eating, eating, eating.. (i just realized that is one more reason that i should start working out now, so i can lose the weight, just to put it back on again during the holidays!!!)
All right, I've rambled on long enough now. I'm going to clean up a bit before I go to sleep. Good night.
My summer is going fairly well. I've been cleaning a lot and refocusing my life back on work. I'm trying to get more organized. When i'm organized i feel much more at ease with my life and thats how i like it. My goal over the next few months is to work on saving my money. I've been putting money away and I haven't been shopping TOO much. But, my biggest problem is food. I eat out soo much. I can't help it. Its just so easy to go to a restaurant and get some take out than eat food. Even when i try to eat healthy, i just go to a restaurant and buy something healthy there. That, my friends is truly sucking up all of my money. So, new plan. Stop eating out. I have so many things that I want to do and want to buy, but I can't keep doing this when I eat out 2 meals a day every day. It just can't possibly work that way. With that said, I'm going to san fransisco in a couple of weeks and I couldn't be more excited. I've been wanting to go there for as long as i remember. I'm going to tour the city by myself the first two days, have dinner with my friend nick and then lacy and I are going to Yosemite park to go hiking! I can't wait!
August is half way over. I can't believe how fast this summer has gone by. I seriously feel like I left for Japan just last week. I have no idea where the time has gone. Luckily fall is always fun since its filled with so many holidays. I look forward to them. The holidays are my favorite time of year. Mainly because i love spending the time with my family. It just makes me feel great when everyone gets together and can just have a relaxing time, laying around, doing absolutely nothing but eating, eating, eating.. (i just realized that is one more reason that i should start working out now, so i can lose the weight, just to put it back on again during the holidays!!!)
All right, I've rambled on long enough now. I'm going to clean up a bit before I go to sleep. Good night.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
summertime
When I first left college I was sad because I realized that it was the end of summer vacation. Then I thought about it and i never really had a summer vacation. I would actually work more in the summer than I did all year long. Every summer I would work 2 jobs almost 70 hours per week, just to save up enough money so that I didn't have to work all year long. With the exception of the one summer that I spent in plattsburgh. I wouldn't even go out all summer. I didn't spend any money because I would just work so much that I didn't even have time to do anything but work and sleep. Needless to say, this summer has been pretty intense. I'm finding a hard time just finding any free time because I have so much going on. And by this I don't mean that I'm working 70 hour weeks. I have been filling my weekends up so much with spending time with my friends going on weekend trips to see people. I've been having an amazing time. I think I prefer only working during the week and having weekends off to having a "summer vacation." I just thought I'd share that.
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