The Client Letter
August 7, 2013
Arizona
Cloudy 61 Degrees
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I’m in the middle of a good book on negotiation by Herb Cohen called, “You Can Negotiate Anything.”
Here’s the link:
In the book he mentions how people are trained to “follow the rules” without question.
The example he gives is a hotel check out time. Based on his research, he found out that 95% of people actually check out when the sign says they are supposed to check out.
When asked WHY they do it, the responses were generally something like, “Because that’s what the sign said.”
We’ve been trained to accept the boundaries set for us by just about ANYONE who stands up and pretends to be an authority figure.
I can’t remember the day when I realized this, but it was an amazing feeling.
Every “rule” I’ve ever followed in my life was simply a form of a “negotiation” created by some figure or organization with perceived authority.
Up until the last few years, I followed those rules without even thinking.
I didn’t realize they were really negotiations made up by human beings just like me! I wasn’t even showing up to the negotiating table!
When your client asks for your work on Tuesday, what do you do?
I don’t know what you do. All I want to make clear is that you have a CHOICE about what you do.
Maybe you can do Tuesday, maybe it works better for you to deliver the goods on Friday.
Never forget that you have a choice. Even when it looks like you don’t.
Take a look at your life and business. Do you like where you are right now?
Whether you do or don’t, the reason you’re in that spot is because of the decisions and choices you’ve made.
It’s that simple.
Make different decisions and you will end up in different places.
The way you help develop the ability to show-up to these negotiations with a quiet power is to let your BIG SELF be the one to come to the table.
That’s the part of you that makes the RIGHT decisions for you. It doesn’t make decisions based on fear. It doesn’t care what others think. It doesn’t need someone’s approval to be OK.
That’s the goal. To bring that part of you into every single decision of your life.
We haven’t received a lot of training in how to do that. (THAT’S what they should be teaching in school.), so that’s why I created this: