Listen much?

When someone is speaking with you, what are you doing? Like most, you are probably preparing a response while that person is still speaking - inevitably missing most of their message. A big NO-NO.

Why do you do this? Who or what is creating the need for such rapid fire banter? You, that's who. You are directly responsible for creating most of this chaos.

Slow down!!! Listen to the other peron closely. Stay present in the conversation so you can figure out what buttons to push in order to move the conversation in a positive direction. A good little tip to find extra seconds to formulate a response is to simply repeat back what the other person just said. For example - "John, I just want to confirm what you just said. You expect to find a 2 bedroom, 2 bath with a minimum of 1100 square feet, in downtown Manhattan for under 1,200,000 in the next 30 days. You also expect to utilize a down payment of approximately 20%. Is that correct?"

Repeat things to ensure that there was no misunderstanding and to give you some extra time to formulate a sound response. Do this, and you will be more successful today than yesterday. EBL's definition of true success.