Two Reasons People Do Not Improve Themselves

There are two main reasons why people do not continually act to improve themselves and their lives somehow.

Number one. The first is because they have reached a state of contentment where they feel that no further improvement is either necessary or desirable.

Number two. The second is because they have reached a state of hopelessness, where they do not think that anything they do will make much of a difference. Identify your own personal ambitions. In what areas are you dissatisfied with your situation? Be clear about the better condition that you desire. What steps could you take today to begin moving toward the result that you really want? Where and how could you improve your conditions by negotiating a better situation for yourself?

People follow the line of least resistance. You place a high value on your time, your money, your mental and physical energy, and your resources. As a result, you do everything possible to conserve them. You use your energies sparingly, and you spend them as carefully as possible to get the things you want. You are economical in your choices. You economize. You don\’t spend more than you have to satisfy a particular need or to achieve a particular satisfaction. This is a major drive behind every negotiation, the desire not to spend any more than necessary.

• Rule. You cannot consciously choose a harder way to accomplish something over an easier way to accomplish it.

You are structured mentally in such a way that you cannot force yourself to select a more difficult path to your goal if you can see an easier path. All things being equal.

• Rule. All human beings are inherently lazy in that they follow the path of least resistance to get whatever they want.

Laziness is normal, natural, and inherent in all human action. This lazy tendency has led to every great advance and breakthrough in science and technology. It\’s the driving force behind many negotiations. You can use being Lazy to your advantage by:

• How can you position your offerings in such a way that your customers perceive your products or services to be the easiest way for them to get the benefits that you offer?
• What new products or services could you develop that would offer your customers a faster and easier way to get the things they want?
• How could you reorganize your life so that you are achieving your goals with less effort? How could you be lazier in the very best sense of the word?

People always strive to get the very most, for the very least. This is just a simple and obvious explanation of human behavior under almost all circumstances. However, it is an extraordinarily important law of negotiation for you to know. It enables you to avoid confusion in interpreting and understanding the behaviors of other people. This principle explains why people often start off by asking for a ridiculous amount in selling or offering a ridiculous amount when buying.

• Rule. When given a choice between more and less. All things being equal, you will always choose more in order to maximize your situation.

This is a natural human behavior. You are designed in such a way that you cannot consciously choose less pleasure, satisfaction, or fulfillment if you can have more for the identical expenditure of resources.

• Rule. The desire for more is automatic and instinctive and applies to all human needs, wants, and desires.

In other words, you always choose more rather than less. You always maximize your situation if you are selling something and one person offers you $5, and another person offers you $6. If you are behaving normally, you will choose the offer of $6 rather than the $5. If you accept less rather than more, some other value or consideration must be at work influencing your behavior. All things being equal, the amount you will demand from the exchange of your time, money, or resources will always be the very most that you can get for the very least that you can give. This desire for more is another way of saying that everyone is inherently greedy. This is just a fact.

A universal quality of human nature. In reality, the quality of greed has no inherent value, positive or negative. Everyone is greedy, and that everyone prefers more to less. All things being equal, people are just greedy for different things.

Everyone wants more.

Parents are greedy for their children and that they want the very best for them in life. Athletes are greedy, and that they want to achieve the very most possible in their areas of competition.

Everyone is greedy. Everyone wants more.

Everyone is looking for ways to improve their conditions in some way. The only thing that stops people from acting on their greed is that they don\’t see a way to get from where they are to where they want to go.

The Principle of Maximization. All buying and selling decisions and all negotiations are based on this principle of maximization. All salaries and wages are determined by it, including yours. Think continually about how you can add value to your products and services every day so that you offer maximum value to your customers. Your customers are continually seeking more in every purchase decision. They go where they feel that they are getting the best deal; all things considered, how could you increase the value that your customer perceives in dealing with you?

The Principle of Expediency? This says that people act to get the very most of the things they want in the fastest and easiest way possible without regard to the secondary consequences of their actions. This is the umbrella principle that explains much of how the world really works and why things happen the way they do.

This law, the principle of expediency, explains virtually all human behavior, all marketing and sales, all negotiating, and all relationships. It largely explains happiness and unhappiness, success and failure in all areas of human endeavor.

• Rule. People are naturally and normally lazy and greedy in everything they do.

This is the way people behave in a state of nature. It is neither good nor bad. It is simply a fact. It is value-free.

It is only the ways in which a person manifests these natural instincts that make the instincts either positive or negative. These qualities exist in every negotiation, on both sides. Everyone is both lazy and greedy. The happiest people are those who accept this law as a basic operating principle for individual behavior. They\’re not surprised when people act consistently with this law. They expect it. They are amazed and pleased when people act otherwise, perhaps motivated by a higher value or principle, but they don\’t become upset when it doesn\’t happen. The principle of expediency explains the way the world works. It is often called the Law of Least Resistance. Everyone in the world is driven in every conceivable way to see the fastest and easiest way to get the things they want right now without concern for the long-term consequences of their actions. Examine your behavior honestly and objectively.

• In what ways do you act expediently to get the things you want?
• Is this tendency helping you are hurting you?
• Examine the behavior of the people you negotiate with?
• In what ways does the principle of expediency explain their behavior?
• Study your business. Look at your products and services, your sales, your marketing. In what ways are your promotional activities in harmony with the natural tendencies of your customers to act expediently?
• How could you change your ways of doing business so that they conform more to the way your customers actually make buying decisions?
• How could you make your business offerings faster, easier and cheaper for your customers?

The Principle of Futurity. The purpose of business negotiation is to enter into an agreement such that each party\’s needs are satisfied. Each is motivated to fulfill his or her part of the agreement and to negotiate with the other party in the future. This is a foundation principle of negotiating and applies, especially to negotiations where you will be dealing with the same party again. In business, it\’s quite common for people to be in and out of business transactions and negotiations with each other for many years. This fundamental futurity must be kept in mind at each stage of each negotiation. Let\’s break this law of futurity down into its constituent parts.

Number one. First, the aim of a negotiation is to enter into an agreement. It is soon, but not always true, that both parties want to do business together. If one does not and is merely negotiating for some other purpose, the other party can be at a considerable disadvantage.

Number two. The second part says such that each party\’s needs are satisfied. This means that an agreement that causes one or the other party to feel that he or she has lost does not fulfill the basic requirement of a successful negotiation. Both must feel that they have come out ahead. This principle goes on to say that each is motivated to fulfill his or her part of the agreement and to negotiate with the other party in the future. This means that both parties are satisfied enough with the outcome that they are motivated to fulfill whatever commitments they have made, and they feel positively enough about the agreement that they are willing to negotiate again and enter into subsequent agreements in the future.

Analyze your current negotiating style, and what areas have you been more focused on winning in the short term without really considering the long-term damage that you might be doing to the relationship? What could you do to change this immediately? Look for ways to make the final agreement more acceptable to the other party. Think of negotiating with his party again in the future. Based on the terms and conditions you are finalizing today, how could you improve the terms without sacrificing things that are important to you?

The principle of Win-Win or no deal in a successful negotiation, both parties are fully satisfied with the result and feel that they have each one or no deal should be made at all. You should always seek an outcome that satisfies both parties to the negotiation if you\’re going to be doing business with his party again in the future. Remember, you always reap what you sow. Any settlement or agreement that leaves one party dissatisfied will come back to haunt you later. Sometimes in ways that you cannot predict.

In every ongoing negotiation or business relationship, you should aim for a win-win solution or no deal.

When you enter into a negotiation with this person again, you should make it clear in advance that you are committed to reach a solution that is satisfactory to both. If it does not entail a win for both parties, you should simply refuse to make any deal at all. When you are determined to achieve a win-win solution to a negotiation and open, receptive, and flexible in your discussions, you will often discover a third possibility that is superior to either of the two proposed solutions. This kind of third alternative solution is almost always achievable if you\’re willing to look for it. It simply requires a commitment to win-win.

Both parties should be happy.

Once you\’ve decided that you are going to agree only to a settlement that is satisfactory to both parties, this means that you do not have to accept any arrangement that you consider second, best. With your values and your intentions clear, you are now in a position to utilize every strategy and tactic available to you to get the very best deal for both of you.

One that ensures that you both end up happy with the arrangement.

Think win-win in all your interactions with others at work and at home.

Actively seek a middle way that satisfies the most pressing desires of both parties. Be creative in suggesting alternatives that both you and the other person more of what you each want. Examine any situation you are in today that you are not happy with.

How could you restructure the terms and conditions in such a way that the other person gets more of what he or she wants as you get more of what you want?

The Principle of Unlimited Possibilities says you can always get a better deal if you know how. You never need to settle for less or feel dissatisfied with the result of any negotiation. There\’s almost always a way that you can get better terms or prices, whether you are buying or selling. Your job is to find a way to explore new opportunities to ask for a better deal.

• Rule. If you want a better deal, ask for it. The word ask is the most powerful word in the world of business and negotiating.

Most people are often so paralyzed by the fear of rejection and disapproval that they\’re afraid to ask for anything out of the ordinary. They just accept what is offered to them and hope for the best. But this is not the case with the best negotiators. The top negotiators will quite calmly and confidently ask for any price or terms remotely, within reason. You will be quite astonished at the better deals you will get by simply asking for a lower price if you\’re buying and asking for a higher price if you\’re selling.

• Rule. Whatever the offered price, react with surprise and disappointment.

Remember, most people have plucked the price out of the air. They\’re always asking for more than they expect to get or offering less than they expect to pay. In either case, you should flinch and react with a mild shock, no matter what. The price of the offer appear hurt, as if the person has just said something cruel or unkind. That was totally uncalled for.

Then ask, Is that the best you can do and remain perfectly silent?

Very often, you ask a person how much an item costs and you flinch when he or she gives you the price. That person will lower the price immediately. In almost every price is a cushion of potential discounts. Very often, the salesperson will drop to that price with one painful flinch on your part.

• Rule. Always imply that you can do better somewhere else.

There\’s nothing that causes a sellers price to drop faster than for you to say that you can get the same item cheaper from another source. This shocks the seller and shakes his or her self-confidence. The seller immediately feels that the deal is slipping away and often cuts the price quickly. Do your homework, check around and ask about other prices that are available. The more examples you can offer when you demand a lower price, the faster the other party will come down to a price that is acceptable to you.