| Hi Friend, If you’re like most people, you start the week looking at your calendar while girding your loins. |
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| We “prepare” for the week by imagining worst case scenarios. When it comes to high- stakes conversations, we tend to go straight to pessimism. We plan from a place of fear and defensiveness. And because when we’re coming from this place, quite often, our “asks” are too small. Our focus is too narrow. After all, that’s what fear does … it narrows the aperture of our vision down to a pinpoint. But what if you looked at the week and engaged in strategic optimism instead? Here’s how it works … pick an upcoming meeting, and instead of furrowing your brow and turning it into a problem, answer this question: What if this conversation goes better than I could have imagined? Describe what that might look like/sound like/feel like. From that place of optimism, plan your remarks/strategy/approach. Once you’ve done that, go ahead and flip it. Next, ask yourself, What could possibly go wrong? Describe how that might play out … then look at each potential challenge, and write out the plans/information/backups you will need in order to be prepared. Your thought experiment this week is to pick THREE meetings that truly matter. Engage in strategic optimism FIRST, then move into strategic pessimism. Notice the impact it has on the way you show up. Shine on, my friend. B |
