My oldest son is four years old. He is full of energy, creativity, and has already developed proficient skills in negotiating. (He must get that from his mother.) One of the most frustrating things as a parent is that a child moves from one thing to the next in minutes, not hours. They may or may not come to back to it. It just depends. This is how a clean room can look like a tornado has hit within minutes of his entry if I’m not paying attention.

When Carter decides that whatever he is doing is no longer…

  • fun…
  • interesting…
  • or just more of the same…

…he moves on.

But isn’t that what we do? We drive, text, tweet, talk, and order fast food all at the same time. We scan through 100 TV or satellite radio channels and complain that there isn’t anything on that we want to watch or listen to. We open our closets full of clothes and determine that we’re bored with it all.

And we wonder why our “next big idea” goes unnoticed, overlooked, and is just ignored.

Maybe we never grow out of being four years old and wanting to be captivated by something original, unique, and exciting. Maybe the secret to uncovering our next great idea is to pull out the building blocks, open the watercoloring supplies, and start playing with a four year old. If we can keep his attention for long enough to get him to look up, come over, and check out what we’ve done, then we’ve won.

Stop trying to gage the success of your communications strategy with adults who are programmed to say “yes” and find some of the toughest critics around. The good news is that preschool isn’t talking about billable hours…yet.

Ben Stroup is a content activist in a post-paragraph world. He is chief broker of opportunity at Ben Stroup Enterprises. Connect with Ben via email, Twitter, and Google+. Subscribe via email to learn how to use content to move people to action.

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