Get Into THEIR World...

I met with a very successful business person here in my hometown of Surrey, BC. We had lunch and the conversation was flat and didn't go anywhere. That was 2 years ago.

I spoke to him recently and found out that our meeting (from his perspective) was "one of the most boring and uneventful meetings" of his life. He told me that I was very self-consumed and all about myself and that there was absolutely nothing there for him personally.

Most people would've been offended at that but I wasn't I was curious. How in the heck did I create such a disempowering view of myself??? I had to know! So I asked and just listened. I saw what he saw and told him that I could see it. I thanked him for his direct feedback and went on my way.

Dale Carnegie said "You can make more friends in two days by being genuinely interested in another person than you can in two years of trying to get people interested in yourself." How true!

I've since used this experience to my advantage by giving up my own desires and really serving others. I've used it to remind me that others are far more important in life than myself. My own opinions and views are pretty much my own and the views of others belong to them. If I have any hope of making a difference for people than I would need to find out what their world looks like, what they think, how they process things, how they view the world, and what they really want. Then and only then can I make a difference for them. I will always see what could make a difference for people but without their world I cannot communicate with them in a way that impacts them. Without that piece of data I'm engaging in a hopeless and fruitless effort of attempting to inject my world into theirs. This can be scary for people or can leave them resistant to us.

Take some time today to really get into someone else's world. You'll love it and best of all you don't have to operate with the added pressure of trying to be funny, witty, or engaging. You already are that when you show up listening!