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It was a dark and stormy night....

.... and I was 9 years old, squashed in the back seat of a taxi with my younger brother and sister, driving through the unfamiliar and bewildering streets of a sprawling large city.

No, we weren't being abducted. But - something I heard on that winding journey impacted my life forever.

Our aunt had flown the three of us down to the city from the North. It was a great adventure - I'd never been in a plane before, and to this country child the lumbering old DC3 was a magic machine.

Aunt Peg was in the front seat, chatting with the taxi driver.

“I've never been from the airport on this road before,” she said.

“I love finding better routes,” replied the driver. “If it's somewhere I've never been before, I get to know the regular ways, and then I look for shortcuts.

That made sense to my child's mind: the words fastened indelibly to the edges of my memory. Since then I've always done the same, not just when driving, but in everything I do.

How does this apply to you?
What shortcuts or better ways of doing things are under your nose? And, how do you find these 'better ways'?

• Develop a curious mind, a mindset that always says, 'How else could we do this?'
• If you find yourself repeatedly doing tasks, play a game with yourself to winkle out alternative ways.
• We don't know what we don't know. Watch others - it's amazing what you can learn from observation.
• If someone does something differently, ask how they did it. Almost everyone is flattered to be asked for advice.