How Your Deal Breakers Impact Your Business
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Everyone has deal breakers. You have things you won’t tolerate in friendships, in romantic relationships, and in living situations. Whether you know it or not, you also have deal breakers that come into play with your business practices. We all do, it is just a matter of whether or not you consciously know what they are.
So how do you know what your deal breakers are, and then what do you do with them once you know?
Start by figuring out what you simply won’t tolerate in business. Try asking yourself these questions:
- When was the last time you were really angry/frustrated?
- What traits do you deplore most in others?
- What do you find the epitome of misery?
- What do you least value in friends and business associates?
Now, separately, list out projects or associates that fall in line with the answers to your above questions. These projects and people go against your values, and don’t align with who you strive to be in business and in life. They are holding you back, and in order to elevate your business and move on, you must consider cutting them out. Keeping these people or projects in your life are costing you time, money, and energy. By cutting them out, you can see an increase in your passion, in your happiness, and in your success.
What are your deal breakers? How has cutting them out (or keeping them in!) impacted your business? Let me know in the comments below!
Somewhere in between naming the deal breakers and shunning the people and projects fitting the description should sit your analysis of how you became associated with these people; why you took on these projects. Often the initial contact was “right” in every way, with all intentions set to move both you and the others involved to a mutually beneficial conclusion. But some things are beyond both parties’ control leaving nothing to be learned. Sometimes, however, one party changed the conditions or rules of the relationship. This is where you can learn how to improve your approach through understanding what drove the other to the new behavior–or, we hope, what made you change your attitude.
Walking away from a deal breaker is likely to be painful, but you should strive to make it educational.
I do not truly get angry anymore… frustrated sometimes, yes. And search for the underlying causes/reasons for the frustration. Communication is a wonderful thing and it takes two. Too many people believe that if they left a message then the communication is complete. Until the other person acknowledges the communication it is not complete. Deal breakers for me are being late without communicating it; not keeping your word. I live by Don Miguel Ruiz’s 4 Agreements.