Four Seconds summary

Living in a busy world, we need to be prepared for everything life throws at us.

In fact, failing to prepare for the day ahead often results in costly blunders that waste time.

How often do you get distracted by how someone communicated a certain point – their tone of voice, or their aggressive body language – rather than focusing on the content of the message? Most of us are pretty poor communicators, and you’ll have to acknowledge this in order to improve your communication habits.

Really try to make a habit out of focusing on the content, instead of the packaging it comes in, to gain a better understanding of the message.

In our hyper-connected world we communicate with a huge variety of people, some similar and some very different from ourselves. In either case, it’s not uncommon to be taken aback by what people say and do. But have you ever thought that the problem might not be the other person, but instead our own habit of expecting too much of them?

If you can learn to alter your expectations, you’ll find that you’ll strengthen your relationships with those around you.

We’re continually learning new things in our working lives: a new language, a new technological skill or management technique. However, we often tap into bad habits that can hinder our own or others’ learning. So how do we stop this?

First, we have to understand that, in order to learn anything, we must have the opportunity to fail.

Acting negatively is something we all do from time to time. Whether it’s at home, at work, or just getting riled up during a football match, we all have our less than desirable sides! But we don’t do our best when we hold on to negative feelings. Let’s see how we can combat this.

You can start with never responding against anyone’s negativity. If you do so, people take it that you’re contradicting their emotions, which will encourage them to hold on to that negativity.