“Life’s most important factor is time. Thus, the way you use your time determines the life you’ll live.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert
Time is your most precious commodity. Once it’s gone, your life ends. Thus, your time is your life. What you do with it determines what your life will be.
No matter who you are, no matter what you do, every day a thief takes a little bit of your life away from you. Depending upon your complicity in his act, he takes a little or a lot. But he does so every day! Over time, his efforts add up to a staggering loss of your time, viability, and opportunities. Do you know who the thief is? Do you know how to stop him from taking your life? Are you even aware of what he’s doing to you?
For some, it may come as a surprise – for others, it won’t – the thief is you! You’re the one that’s allowing yourself to run awry with your time and your life – thus you can arrest those efforts that aren’t serving you. To do that, become more mindful of how you use your time.
How Your Time is Taken:
There’s a cost to allowing your time to become taken. Do you know what that cost is? Consider calculating the cost of your time in dollars. That should make the squandering of it more meaningful to you.
Every day you’re bombarded by distractive sources that cry out for your attention. They may show up in the form of a friend calling when you’re engaged in more productive activities. They may occur as something in the background that captures your attention that diverts your actions to something less productive. If you’re okay with having your attention diverted, that’s okay. Everyone needs diversions sometimes to re-energize themselves.
The point is, pay attention to anything that proves to be a distraction from endeavors that are more important. They’re your time stealers. And they’re the impediments that will prevent you from reaching higher heights. By the fact that you’re controlling the distractions that detour you from more important tasks should alert you to the need to exercise greater control over such occurrences.
How to Stop Your Time From Being Taken:
Everyone encounters time stealers. Some allow them to occur due to a needed diversion from what may be mundane – they may be seeking something that’s more exciting. Others may do so because they’re fatigued and don’t possess the mental energy required to maintain focus. No matter the reason that your halted, note it. There’s valuable feedback information contained in that reason. You can gain greater insight into yourself and what serves as your motivators.
When you catch yourself diverted from more viable tasks, one way to prevent yourself from losing valuable time is to say aloud, “stop thief”. Doing that will allow your conscious and subconscious mind to become more attuned to how and when you allow yourself to get off track. And you’ll become more aware of how to combat such time thefts.
What does this have to do with negotiations?
Time is the one precious commodity that every negotiator has. Thus, to that degree, all negotiators start off evenly. Even if you’re pressured by time constraints, initially if the other negotiator is unaware of those constraints, you and she are on the same time paradigm. Therefore, the way you utilize your time through the offers you make determines the flow of the negotiation and the degree that it’s beneficial to you.
You can make up for the time that might become lost by anticipating the unexpected and planning for it. Then, should it occur, you’ll be prepared to address those situations without losing time. That’s one way to stop time thefts from preventing you from reaching your goals, which will assist you in achieving greater negotiation outcomes … and everything will be right with the world.
Remember, you’re always negotiating!
After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com
Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator
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