This week I want to remind you of a scene from a movie and use the simple, fictional, story it tells to put a spotlight on why you might not always be getting what you want.

For those of you too impatient to read the story, the evidence points to one thing:

You're not asking for what you want

You're waffling around, here, there, everywhere but addressing the issue.

Here's the story. The following scene comes from the movie, "Get Shorty".

John Travolta is playing a loan shark who wants to get into the movies and Gene Hackman is playing a third-rate Hollywood producer who is desperate to raise money for his favourite script.

Hackman's character wants to interest a big-name actor in the lead part and tells Travolta about how he is going to approach the psychotherapist of the actor's personal trainer.

Travolta, whose character is bemused at the roundabout ways that Hollywood people operate says, "That's the difference between you and me. If I want something from someone, I ask them straight out."

How many times do you act like Hackman's character, the third-rate Hollywood producer, skirting round the sides of problems, dealing through middle-people, and never really addressing the heart of the issue?

Remember why you're in business; fun or profit. Only those two reasons. Messing around with middle-people is neither good fun or profitable.

How about taking a stand and pushing your sales pitch further up the chain of command right from the offset?

Very often, the people at the top of large divisions and organisations have no idea about the real problems their colleagues face interacting with customers - the very people that produce the revenue that keeps their company alive.

It is lonely at the top - and it's even lonelier if nobody talks to you.

So here's your action for next week: stop messing around with agents, psychoanalysts and personal trainers (to continue the example). Get in the elevator and take your problems up to the top floor.

"Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative...

...latch on to the affirmative,don't mess with Mr In-Between" (as the song goes).

I like to consider myself a "positive realist". What do I mean by this? I mean that I actively look for positive outcomes when things aren't going to plan, (as they haven't been this week, as it happens). At the same time, I also avoid what I refer to as "mindless optimism" - this vacuous state into which otherwise sensible and rational people slide when things go wrong - believing that "everything will be OK" and things will "sort themselves out".

I tell you this. If I could invent something which would "sort itself out", I'd make a fortune. I've never met anything that "sorted itself out". Things only ever "sort themselves out" if someone, and that's most probably you, takes action!

If you sit on your backside, your inaction is inviting in negative thoughts. Your mind is always working and if you don't keep it focused on positive stuff, the negative will creep in by default. You will imagine the worst - and that's what will come to pass.

Karl Wallenda, the famous high-wire performer, fell to his death in 1978, aged 73. His wife said afterwards, "All Karl thought about for three months prior to it was falling. It seemed to me he put all his energies into 'not falling', rather than walking the tightrope."

Life is like a tightrope. Keep your eyes up and your mind focused on the positive outcome and you'll avoid many of the pitfalls along the way.

That's it folks for this week - as usual, your comments welcomed and appreciated, particularly with reference as to what you'd like to hear about. I do get quite a few e-mails by the way, and I read them all, so please don't feel shy about getting in contact.

Best wishes for the coming week.

Chris Davidson
Editor, Professional Speakers Journal
editor@professionalspeakersjournal.com