The importance of rediscovery
In 2015, the World EXPO was held in Milan, Italy. If you’re passionate about food, the planet we live on, or just want to experience an amazing day out, exploring new things with thousands of people from all over the world, a World Expo is a fantastic thing to visit.
An hour on the Frecciarossa train from Milan lies the city of Turin. When you read about its industrial past you might expect a landscape of grey & enormous factories. However, what greets you when you step out of the main station is a vibrant, beautiful, cosmopolitan city, buzzing with music, art, cinema, food, amazing architecture, shops, markets and cafés all surrounded by an abundance of natural beauty.
The rediscovery of a beautiful Italian city
Over the years, Turin has continued to rediscover itself, from being a former capital of Italy, to a city dominated by car making, to a modern day cultural and economic hub, retaining much of its past identity from previous centuries. The old and modern combine in effortless harmony.
Just as with the evolution of Turin into a more modern city, rediscovery is vital to us all, as it allows us to focus on and develop our core strengths, albeit sometimes in the hustle and bustle of modern life it can be easy to lose sight of these. Instead, we may get caught in the trap of trying to reinvent ourselves, which is a different beast, as it can leave us striving for things that do not really reflect or demonstrate who we really are, nor allow us to develop our true potential.
The pressures of reinvention
In a business world where there is an ever present pressure to perform and deliver more, we often look for the new, amazing solution to increase revenues and profitability. The reinvention. However, we can feel frustrated when our hard endeavours to reinvent do not pay off, which then adds more pressure to perform and find new things. The potential result, our brains switch off and we become disillusioned with our work environment and our fruitless efforts.
However, if we step back a little from time to time to rediscover our core strengths and use these to the best of our ability, we may find that they provide us with greater fruits in the long run. The long run, because as history teaches us, short term gains or benefits can be wiped out in an instant where we neglect to look at the longer term picture. Just as the plant that grows in the dark with just a chink of artificial light will initially grow the fastest as it stretches to find more light, it will not bear the healthy fruit that the plant which grows patiently in an abundance of natural light will achieve.
Thriving as a human
Just as plants thrive growing at their own pace in natural sunlight, humans thrive where they are in an environment where they can develop at a natural pace, play to their strengths and practice what they are truly passionate about. We all had subjects that we enjoyed more than others at school, be they science, maths, sports, music, languages or art. However, how many of us continually tap into that strength and passion and use it in our everyday jobs?
Visiting Turin provides a pertinent example of a city that is passionate about its strengths and has these on abundant display for its visitors. It is proud to show these strengths off in a non-flashy way and just be its authentic self. That’s what makes it such an appealing place to visit.
Our most unique selling point
Our most unique selling point be it in business or life, is just being our authentic selves. When we are our authentic selves, we can exude positive characteristics that attract others to engage with us. However if we strive to try and reinvent ourselves or change too much, there is the danger that we neglect our core strengths in search of the unobtainable. Of course, as the world changes we need to keep up with these changes, but that shouldn’t be at the expense of keeping our core strengths at the forefront of what we do. Some of our best loved retailers who have survived over decades have done so because they have played to their core strengths. Where they have wobbled along the way, it may have been because they tried to reinvent themselves into something that didn’t reflect who they really were, which then pushed consumers away.
There will be times where we may feel a lack of direction in our everyday lives, but by revisiting our core strengths, we can continue to grow, develop and retain our authenticity.
