If you were ever in a situation where you’ve walked away from a conversation feeling drained or exhausted, chances are there was something you were attached to in the conversation. An attachment is:
- How a person relates with a behavior or another person that gives them some sense of self worth or purpose.
- A way of trying to control the outcome of a conversation/situation.
The attachments to specific outcomes during a conversation consist of:
- The need to be right/look good. (The avoidance of being wrong/looking bad/hearing no.)
- The need to be understood or prove your point.
- The need to have people agree with you.
My Turn – Your Turn Communication: When the communication process becomes a struggle for power and control.
If you find that you are repeating yourself, pushing to get someone to see it your way or creating evidence to strengthen your side, you’re caught up in the ego of the situation.
Being attached to your own agenda inside a conversation:
- Limits the ability for a new or better possibility/solution/outcome to surface.
- Creates a filter in your listening that prevents others from contributing to you.
- Invalidates the other person by not respecting their point of view.
To Let Go Of Attachments During The Communication Process:
Demonstrate Trust And Respect. Instead of listening through a filter, allow yourself the ability to explore a new and possibly better way of creating your desired outcome by unlatching yourself from your own premeditated agenda. Consider that the other person’s solution may be better than your own. Accepting that you don’t always need to have all the answers will eliminate resistance and prevent you from feeling drained after a conversation.
Tip From The Coach: To detach from the outcome and tap into the wisdom of others, ask yourself:
- What is the value that the other person is trying to share with me?
- What better solution/possibility can we create together?
- How can I receive this message instead of resist it?
- How can I change the way I see/feel about things in a way that better serves me to eliminate feeling stuck, stressed or upset? (What beliefs do I need to let go of and replace with more empowering beliefs?)
- Am I resisting the lessons or receiving the lessons in front of me?
(What is needed to overcome/let go of the threat/fear that is keeping me stuck?)
Shift The Focus From I to You. Attachments are our agenda. Shift the focus away from you and onto the other person.
Ask Yourself:
- What value can I give? (It all comes right back to us!)
Focus On The Present.
The three points in time; the past, present and the future. Sure we live in the present, but is that where we are truly living and responding to moment to moment? Consider that almost 80% of our time is spent either living in the past or in the future. (Ex: Reacting from a past experience or an expectation of the future.) Where is the focus of your energy and thoughts?
Living In/Reacting To The Past:
“If only I, (woulda, coulda, shoulda). “I should have done that because….. “I remember the last time something like this occurred. I’m sure it will happen again.”
In other words, we are responding to and “living in the past.”
Living In/Reacting To The Future:Trying to get somewhere/focused on an end result in the future. Examples:
When I, once I, etc.
We often live, listen and react from the past or are pushing for something to happen in the future.
Highly effective leaders respond to and are fully living in the present.
To be fully present means you are able to focus on a single person, idea or topic. It means not having any preoccupations with the past or future. The past is gone, and we have NO control over the future.
Being fully present takes practice, effort, focus and a willingness to exclude all that is not directly relevant to what you are currently engaged in, especially while speaking with someone. Living in, responding to and thinking in the present, is both healthy and more productive. If you can practice this, the quality of your communication, as well as your life will greatly increase.
Tip From The Coach: What was and what will be never takes precedent over what is.
Any attachment is based either on the future or the past, with the focus on a result we are looking to create or avoid that has not even happened yet. An attachment is never about what is happening in the present.
Ask Yourself: Am I responding to/living in the present? (Am I focused on an anticipated future outcome in the conversation or stuck in the past with regrets/beliefs/events that are really not relevant to creating something new in the present?)
Once you open up your thinking and detach yourself from the outcome during a conversation with a customer:
- You’ll notice your energy level will naturally increase.
- You will experience less stress.
- You will uncover new and greater possibilities/solutions naturally that you would otherwise miss out on without having to push for them.
Create Possibilities Rather Than Expectations
Possibility: Something that may exist or happen, where an expectation is a hope or as we have discussed, an attachment. Look at a possibility as a choice where an expectation is a need.
When one is open to possibility, they are inspired to innovate, create and develop while being present in the moment. You feel a sense of choice in the pursuit of your goal. People who have expectations may not be okay with the present and need something more than what they have. In other words, you can either be gripped with a certain expectation about something; whether it’s having to sell, make your point or get someone to agree with you, or you can simply enjoy the possibility of creating a partnership with that person and providing value to them, without being attached to the outcome.
You know it is a possibility when it is fun and you can’t lose; it is an expectation when you are hurt if it doesn’t work out.