Articles on Selling by Robert Seviour
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It won't improve until it's got worse
(A 'different' approach to solving problems)
Have you got a
problem which won't go away?
I certainly
have a couple, and perhaps you do too. Here's a way of looking at them
that may help.
Generally
troubles don't fix themselves, you have to do something to be
free of them. But often, just thinking about the issue is depressing and
it's far easier to find something which will take your mind off it
instead of dealing with the cause of the trouble.
Problems exist
in enormous variety, let's just use bad habits as simple examples;
comfort-eating and drinking too much alcohol. Can we agree that both of these
are activities may make you feel ok for a
while but do nothing to tackle the source of a problem?
What does?
Addressing the issue directly will, and although it may be unappealing
to face up to whatever is upsetting you, it's the fastest route to being
free of the worry.
Look at any
common problem and you'll see that that the solution is obvious.
You eat too
much - begin a sensible diet.
Not earning
enough - get a better job.
Unhappy
relationship - find someone else.
Knowing what is
necessary is not difficult, but doing something about it is.
Personal development guru
Tony Robbins
says the reason we put off what's necessary is that, in the short-term,
it appears to bring us more pain than pleasure. Initially we appear to
suffer less by inaction than by taking the necessary steps to deal with
what's causing the problem.
I think he's
right, so logically, if you really want to deal with nasty issues, it
would help if you can create strong 'associations' to the actions needed
to fix the problem.
For example,
(believe me, it's not often I do this) if you want to lose weight, it
would help to have a mental link so that when you get a hunger pang, you
think to yourself, 'Great, I'm burning up some fat'.
Yes, that
looks like masochism, I know. And the people who have the drive to keep
on doing the hard part are summed up in the phrase, 'When the going gets
tough, the tough get going'.
What about all
us regular Joes, the majority?
The answer;
nothing improves until it first gets bad enough.
Here's a
personal example. I like salt on my food, but one part of my brain knows
that it does bad things to my body. When my blood pressure was checked
recently it was a bit too high. That worried me and I have definitely
backed off on my sodium intake. I would not have done anything about my
habit without the evidence that it was harming me.
What does
it take for a gambler to quit - losing his home and family probably.
Why don't
armies use nuclear weapons - because we know the consequences are
too terrible.
When will
we get serious about dealing with greenhouse gases - when there have
been even more natural disasters.
There you have
it, the default setting for the human brain is, ignore problem until
catastrophic.
That is dumb,
not smart, but it's the way we are, however being aware of it might
help.
An idea I got
from Stephen Covey relates to this; he teaches that it is good to think
about the things you do under four headings, which are the permutations
of the terms 'important', 'urgent' and 'non-', laid out in a 2 X 2 box
matrix
Everybody
spends a lot of time on 'unimportant and non-urgent' matters.
Watching TV
is an example and at work we usually have a load of 'important
and urgent' ones.
It surprised me
when I first learned it that the solution to many of our difficulties
lies in getting on with 'important but NON-urgent' activities.
If you can
somehow get your mind above the walls of the rut that it feels cosiest
in, 'important but non-urgent' would be the right category for
such things as acquiring the qualifications needed to get a better job,
or getting regular, physical exercise.
It is very easy
to put off these actions because they are not urgent. But how important
are they? Do you want to a bigger pay cheque at the end of the month?
Are you embarrassed by being out of shape?
I'm in no
position to preach, but I've made a start on some of my problems this
way, but only because I let them get really bad first. You don't have
to.
If you enjoyed this article, take a
look at my book. About the Selling for Engineers Manual
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