I was re-listening to an audiobook the other day - 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done.
I can only remember one lesson from the book really, but that's okay because one mind-shifting idea that you can carry with you in your journey is all you need from a book for it to be worth the read.
That lesson is this:
In one chapter, the author recounts how he was trying to see if he could do business with a potential client. He wanted to take the person out to lunch and see if what he had to offer would be a good fit, but every time he scheduled a time to meet, his potential client kept cancelling at the last minute. This happened over and over and over.
Most people would have given up - spared themselves the frustration and hurt ego.
But the author, Peter Bregman, realized one important thing:
If he could separate his instinct to feel hurt and frustrated from the experience of being cancelled on, then the price of rescheduling another meeting was a mere 2 minute phone call.
Sometimes we give up on an endeavor - not because the work is too hard, but because we make the work too hard with the negative emotional roller coaster that we attach to the work.
We turn what could just be a simple, painless 2 minute phone call to reschedule a meeting into a dramatic reason to throw in the towel and call it quits.
Peter kept rescheduling and he found that because he didn't allow himself to get emotional, he was starting to actually enjoy the process and see it as a game. Eventually, he got his meeting and won over the new client who has been a valuable asset to his business for many years since and who still, Peter says, cancels alot of meetings.
What could be easier in your life, if you got off of the emotional roller coaster?
No comments:
Post a Comment