One night, during my training in Texas, we had a special guest speaker named Mike Lipkin (check out his website). He was one of the best speakers I’ve seen in a while especially given the fact that he was able to maintain the attention of ~600 exhausted 20something year olds for a good 90 minutes around 22:00! Very impressive indeed!
Why I “Get It” (Side Story)
At one point, he asked the question: “Being consultants, why would people do what you tell them to do? Why should people listen to you?” A few people answered things like: “Because they trust you.”, “Because we’re [company name]”, etc. I raised my hand and answered: “Because you’ve convinced them that it’s in their best interest to do so.” He made me stand up (so everybody could get a good look! 
) and said: “Exactly! There are 2 kinds of people in this world ladies and gentlemen: those who get it and those who don’t. Clearly this man gets it!” He went on to talk about Montreal being the Paris of the north and how he loves it. Apparently he comes to Montreal often, so it’d be fun if I could arrange lunch with him at some point. That however, was not my lesson learned. I already “get” why people should listen to me! 
The New Life Lesson
Later on, he mentioned how you should treat everyone you speak to like a client and make them feel special, etc., etc. He then said something I found really interesting- something along the lines of: “Talk to people as if it’s the last conversation you’ll ever have.” I stopped to think about that for a moment. I quickly realized that I don’t usually care about what happens to me because I have an intrinsic belief that things always go well regardless of the situation. I changed the thought to: “Talk to everyone as if it’s the last conversation they will ever have.” Now I’ve got something to work with.
I believe this way of thinking will help avoid negativity, rudeness and generally unpleasant conversations. I’m typically a positive person, so this isn’t a huge shift for me. However, if you’re a negative person, I highly recommend keeping this in mind when interacting with others! I then thought about a few people I don’t speak to anymore and recalled the last conversation I had with them. There are a couple that I need to go back and correct, but for the most part, my last conversations were all good (at least on my part).
This was the most important thing I learned a couple of weeks ago, which I’m trying to apply to my everyday life now.
Speak to everyone as if it’s the last conversation they will ever have…
Write that down. 