This one's going to be kind of quick and short. I'll give you one example of the concept that I'm thinking of, but I do want to stress to everybody that words matter, particularly in business conversations.
I think every syllable that's uttered has a purpose to me under the pressure of are we having a business conversation? Our subconscious mind starts to release thoughts, ideas, impressions or perspectives that we may not be aware of that are having a big impact on us. If it's happening to you, I also think it's happening to the other person that you're speaking to.
One of the things I like about my life is that a lot of my friends happen to be in the coaching and personal performance business, and a good friend of mine up in Vermont does coaching work with people. I've met some of his clients, because we've all become friends, and I was lucky enough to be privy to a conversation where the client was speaking to the coach and said, “hey, Peter, I want to let you know this little tip that you gave me has had a big impact, and it was about word choices.”
And the client said, “I had a situation where I had to interact with someone and I wasn't expecting it to be very enjoyable. It wasn't going to be a real pleasant conversation.” It wasn't about something that he really liked to do and his mindset before making a decision to change his words was, this is going to be a negative or difficult conversation.
So his mindset was simply, I have to have this conversation which made it sound like it was an assignment or something I've got to do, but I really don't want to do it. Something we've all experienced in our lives. And he said, “by making this simple choice of one word, it changes the entire attitude and in consequence, the entire impact and effectiveness of this meeting.
So the word choice change was I have to have this conversation with this other person got changed to I get to have this conversation with another person. And as soon as I heard this, it was like a blinding flash of the obvious that that one word could have an enormous impact on how effective that conversation would be. I have to do it. It's a chore. I get to do it. It's a joy and a privilege. And I really think that life is nothing but an endless opportunity to make decisions and choices on how you want to experience what you're involved in and what goes on around you. And I think it was an enormous lesson in less than five seconds that we could all benefit from.
So doing these weekly Fast Tip Friday’s is a lot of work! There are times that I absolutely feel like I have to do Fast Tip Friday. But I have to tell you… after I've done them and we've gotten all of these recorded, it really has been an experience. I get to do Fast Tip Fridays and share some thoughts and ideas and hopefully compel some of you to success on your own.
So from my heart to yours, I'm glad I get to do this and share a little bit of my perspective with each and every one of you. Take care, make good word choices, brighten up your life, and have a great weekend. Take care.
