In life there is a scenario that will hit you. It's a fact, you will be cruising along the path you want to go, and BAM! it happens, somebody or something will throw a big stick in your wheel of life. And here is where a choice is made. Do we react using our negative emotions or do we decide to make and even better decision, and that would be to be more proactive. Make something happen!
When I say make something happen I mean this in a positive way. When you react you are using your negative emotions making a situation worst. In your professional carrier or your personal life a negative reaction can really hurt you in the long run. You yell, write an angry letter, throw things and tell people what on your mind without thinking of others feelings. It will get things off your chest but you put the burden on someone else.
There is one total opposite thing you can do, be proactive. This is the action of digging deep inside of you to make a change for the better, help out the situation.
On more than one occasion in my professional carrier I've "flipped out". I can remember one of my superiors and myself getting into a heated argument, there was yelling, high blood pressure and several calls were made where I found myself complaining about the situation. Now I thought at the time, I was doing the right thing by "bitching" about the situation. When I think back now, did I get any further, the answer is no.
I have now figured a different approach to situations I've once found irritating. That's to look at things as feedback. When you get feedback in life you can look at it positively if you know yourself well. Look at it as a chance to improve your weaknesses, we're not all perfect, but we can try and achieve better and better day in and day out.
There was a time when all I did was judge people and there opinions and now I do my best to try and understand them, it's much more helpful. I've learned the art of listening, when someone says something I don't agree with I try not to argue the point and simply ask them "really? Tell me more". I'm telling you you'll make a lot more friends and customers by not snapping at them, that would be reacting to them. When your listening and asking questions your being much more proactive, your interested in the conversation and you allow people to speak. People respect you much more when you listen.
It can be a lot of work to not react to every little situation but that can make the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people. In sales we face objections all the time, as cliche as it sounds really great sales people know that once a customer says no, the sales actually begins. A loser will sit there and tell you nobody is interested in what your selling because all they hear is no. Great salespeople know the answer of a customer saying no is simply an automatic answer, the customer is only reacting. Think of it, last time you walked in a store and were asked if you needed help, did you say no? I'm sure if you said no to a salesperson's help 1 minute later you wanted to ask the salesperson a question. All you did was have an automatic reaction to a situation, you could have been proactive and got the help.
Now after reading this I want to to do a few things:
1. When faced with an answer you know is wrong, try and understand the person by asking why they believe what they have told you. (Be polite)
2. In your professional life if a superior or partner has a belief you believe to be totally off, get to know why they think what they do. ( I've done this, and once I found out the reason I was fighting the whole time, I was 100% on board).
3. Be nice, start to consider other feeling by taking yourself and your feelings out of the situation. It's difficult but once you get it, you automatically win!
Stay Motivated
Shane C
