Recently I finished reading You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero. In the book, the author advises that a key to success is to avoid negotiation.
Like you probably are right now, I was skeptical.
She continues to explain that she is referring exclusively to the negotiations you have with yourself on a daily basis. Let me give you an example…
Several days a week, I tell myself I’m going to go for a run. Sometimes it’s for time, sometimes it’s for distance. But in either case, I predefine a goal beforehand – let’s say two miles.
Then once I start running, sometime after the one mile mark I will often start to consider cutting my run short and begin rationalizing why it’s OK to do so.
This is precisely what Sincero says you cannot do if you are going to be successful.
Since reading this book and learning about of this inner monologue, I hear it all the time. And I’m sure it was always there, I just wasn’t always consciously aware of it.
Whenever that voice of negotiation comes in to suggest changing my original plans or goal, I work to ignore it and stay the course. Something that really helps this fight is having very well defined goals that I have attached a strong reason why I’m pursuing, and have created an emotional attachment to achieving.
Step one is setting well-defined goals. The more clear your goals, the better you can focus on and defend them – even from yourself.