School holidays. Four kids at home. Winter in Melbourne. No plans to go anywhere or do anything just like a sloth of bears hibernating. I had ambitious ideas to clean out bedroom cupboards, cull playroom contents and who knows, repaint the entire house. Or, write a novel.
Instead, we surprised the kids with an overnight stay in the city. When you don’t live in the CBD, staying in your capital city is a novelty. Often dismissed because it doesn’t seem to be a destination worthy of a postcard holiday, filled with the crash of waves or the lure of a mountaintop, but the city is an underrated adventure. Pressing the button in the lift was cause for great excitement (we are not country bumpkins but surprisingly, don’t need a lift in our house!). Buffet breakfast was a huge hit as was the hotel pool and spa. Walking around the city, seeing homeless people sitting in the cold and rain, brought out the compassion in my children who felt sad for them and offered their pocket money.
What the stay taught me (and my children) is that a changed perspective is as good as holiday. There’s the gratitude for the wide open spaces we live in, the warm home and loving family we have. Fifteen floors above the ground, looking into the offices and apartments around us offered fascinating people-watching. A fly-on-the-wall view of complete strangers’ lives. Cars and trucks flying along the road below, people like ants scurrying the streets, all looked so different from above.
When you apply this same theory to your own venture, your business, your product – whether it be in inception stage or wheels in full motion – you often gain a renewed sense of direction. A new perspective is as good as a holiday for yourself and your business.
Is there something you’re working on that’s wedged, stagnated, stuck? For me, it would be writer’s block; a plot I can’t get moving, a character I don’t understand, a product I can’t articulate effectively to an audience. Take it and turn it on its head. Look at it from someone else’s viewpoint, find another angle, consider an unexpected perspective. It could just be the change you need to unearth the gem buried under there.
I came home from our one night stay in the city and rewrote a story from a different character’s point of view. It was pivotal in moving my project from meh to yeah!
Do you have something that would look better from an altered position?
About Kylie Orr, Kylie Orr
Her dream of becoming a back up dancer for Janet Jackson was quashed by a distinct lack of talent, forcing Kylie Orr into a day job of writing. She has four children and one husband to fuel her inspiration.
After eight years writing for Essential Baby, Kylie was keen to broaden into genres outside parenting. She found the murky waters and the swell of rejection in this cut-throat freelance writing business overwhelming. But 2015 is her year. She’s determined she will be successful, she will conquer the writing world and make enough money to eat more than 2 minute noodles.
