Understandably so, by the time you’ve sat down at your allocated restaurant table you’ve probably been hungry for quite some time and you’d like nothing more than to have your food ready for you to tuck-in. Be that as it may, you should never rush through the menu and settle on ordering the very first item that seems enticing enough to satisfy your immediate hunger. Reading through the entire menu is always good practice and will probably only take a couple of minutes extra in any case.
Getting into the good habit of reading through the entire menu applies beyond ordering food at a restaurant however. The idea is to develop a habit of reading through all the options you have available to you, whether these choices apply in business or simply as part of your personal development efforts; two areas of your life which you’d naturally endeavor to work on constantly. It applies to viewing pamphlets, online catalogs, or even an investment prospectus, a services list, etc.
Taking Advantage of Better Opportunities
Perhaps the most obvious advantage of developing a habit of reading to get the whole picture is that of always giving yourself the chance to spot and take advantage of better opportunities. This literally applies to any situation you might find yourself in, which presents you with a few options to consider, from the day’s “manager’s special” in a restaurant you’re eating at to something a little more peripheral to your day-to-day life, such as the various banking options you have available from your banking institution of choice. The health supplements isle of many a pharmacy for example is particularly famous for its “two-for-the-price-of-one” specials or “buy-three-and-get-the-cheapest-one-free” promotion, but it’s almost never just laid out in plain view for you. The price you have to pay for such rewards is usually just a matter of spending a little more time looking around and not just going straight for what you’re primarily looking for.
Developing Your Analytical Skills and Extracting More Value
It really pays in the end to get into the habit of “shopping like a girl” in this way because with repetition, it becomes a sixth sense, with the developed analytical skills always giving you the advantage of being able to extract more value out of just about anything. We’ll go back to our example of the options afforded to you by your banking institution to make a case in point; when using time deposits, you’re essentially going beyond what would otherwise have been a traditional way of saving your money, which allows you to keep your money safe and secure while investing it with minimal risk at the same time. Such benefits are only available to those who take the time to “read the whole menu” and go beyond their field of vision otherwise induced by a very specific need.
“Reading the whole menu” tends to reveal the inner-workings of some complex (and not-so-complex) systems, of which an understanding brings with it many opportunities which are only in reach of those who take the time to expand their vision and look beyond what’s only in front of them.