Watch What You Say to Yourself

The little voice inside your head might say, “I am tired of being rejected when I ask for a meeting.” The little voice feels like the “no” is a personal rejection that invalidates their worth as a human being, making something out of what is really nothing.

The larger voice recognizes that a failed attempt to acquire a meeting is nothing more than feedback. The feedback provided by the answer “no” only means that the person receiving the call did not believe the value you offered in exchange for their time was favorable to them. The larger voice says, “I’ll change up my offer and try again later and, eventually, I will get a meeting.”

The little voice says, “You didn’t lose that deal. If it weren’t for your irrational competitor’s low price, you’d have surely won.” That tiny voice absolves you of all responsibility for the loss, protecting your ego from being bruised. It reminds you that you are a good and competent person and there was nothing you could do.

The larger voice tells you, “You didn’t create enough of a preference to block your irrational competitor, and you didn’t address the difference in strategic outcomes when clients underinvest. Next time, we’ll move that up in the conversation and do a better job blocking their strategy—or at least making it hard for them.” The big voice isn’t dissuaded from taking responsibility, instead it looks to what you might do differently in the future.

The little voice says, “You can prospect tomorrow. You have plenty of time, and nothing bad is going to happen when you put opportunity creation off for another day. No one is even going to notice.” The small chirping voice always sells tomorrow because it prefers comfort over almost everything. It’s willing to trade comfort for your reaching your full potential.

Your larger voice says, “You are paying the price today for what you want tomorrow,” quite the opposite of what the small voice sells. The larger voice is proactive and takes the initiative, doing what needs to be done today efficiently and without fail. The larger voice would have you pay in full and have what you want, knowing that procrastination only pulls the future you want further away from you.

It’s important you pay attention to what you say to yourself. Your results and your future are going to first manifest in your mind, and then they will manifest in the world. Choose carefully which voice you will allow to design your future.