From the Book: Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff
Part 7. Don't Interrupt Others or Finish Their Sentences
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That’s Not What I Was Going To Say…
Interrupting others and finishing their sentences before they’re done talking can be very annoying for the person being interrupted, especially if the interrupter isn’t on the same page as the person speaking.
I have a habit of interrupting others when I know what I’m talking about, but the conversation is going nowhere, or if the conversation is starting to take a negative or depressing turn. I’ll sometimes become impatient (depending on the situation) and will then try to move the conversation to a conclusion or into a positive direction.
To address this habit of mine, I try my best to make it a point to apologize for the interruption and let the person know why I’m interrupting them; I say try because my efforts don’t always go as planned.
I love listening to others express themselves, and I love learning new things from people. I know that I have a lot to gain from listening to others complete their thoughts because there is so much that I don’t know. By the same token, I know that I have a lot to lose if I allow certain people to complete their thoughts because I’ve had thousands of conversations that went absolutely nowhere.
I’ve found that most of pointless conversations are usually with people without solid goals on the subject that we’re speaking. They’ll just talk and talk and talk without really knowing how or if they want the conversation to end.
If I’m not prepared to have this type of conversation it that moment, I’m going to need to cut the it short. If I don’t, I stand to lose time, money, and other opportunities. And although interrupting others and finishing their sentences can be viewed as a rude thing, at times it is so necessary.
Communicating and Connecting with others doesn’t come naturally to most of us. Some of us were raised in environments where you couldn’t speak your mind, while others were never told to stop talking regardless of how little sense they were making, and then there are those in the middle.
If you struggle with always being interrupted by others, if you’re the interrupter, or you simply want to improve your conversations, here’s a great audiobook to check out: Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently (By John Maxwell)
Let’s make today a great day and and Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff.
~Matthew
Food for Thought
Imagine a scenario in which you’re being offered $50/call to call 10 sellers and ask them 5 questions. You have 100 minutes to make it through all of the calls; that’s about 9 minutes call when you factor in dialing time.
And at the end of 100 minutes if you’ve made all of your calls and have asked everyone your 5 questions, you’ll get your $500, but if you don’t make it through the calls within the time given you’ll get $0.
As you’re going through your calls you realize that the first three calls take you 40 minutes to make. This is about 13 ½ minutes per call, and remember you have to average less than 9 minutes per call.
I know what I would need to do on the next 7 calls, what do you do?
