If you drive, you would be familiar with the practice of waiting for a driver indicating to change lanes or turn to actually execute the move. We wait because sometimes, an indicating driver doesn’t make the move in spite of the indicator.
People don’t always do what they say they will do. For any number of reasons. Likewise in business, we need to look for someone's actions to back up their words, before we put ourselves or our business on the line.
It is much easier to say the right things than to follow through with congruent actions. It is not surprising that many businesses use marketing to try and fix operational problems. They change what they say instead of what they do.
So why do we fall for the words? Because of our own internal fears.
- A deal sounds too good. And we desperately want it to be so. Because we fear we may miss out. This is the fear of lack. It drives us to make poor choices, and to spend dollars to save cents.
We don’t have what they are offering. We need what they have. If we don’t sign on to what they are offering, we will be diminished. This the fear that we are not enough; that we need someone/something else to complete us. This drives us into exploitative and destructive relationships.
And so we learn to wait. If a potential offer or collaboration sounds too good to be true, wait to see if their actions back up their words.
And while waiting, we can reflect on why their particular words resonate with us. Are their words triggering a fear response? How? What are those fears the words are feeding upon?
Image: Driving via Shutterstock.
