Negotiation is not just about sitting across the table from someone and working out a deal.  Sometimes we have to get creative to get the best deal for ourselves.  For example: I have problems with my back and sometimes it goes out on me and I’m in severe pain.  In order to keep my back strong I do Bikram Yoga.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with this type of yoga, it’s the hot yoga in a 105 degree room with about 40% humidity.  It has helped to heal my back. I wanted to get it paid for as a medical expense.  I had to get creative to come up with a way to get this paid for as physical therapy. 

 When I started to take yoga, I submitted the invoice to my flexible spending plan at work to be reimbursed for the cost.  They denied it and when I discussed it with them, they said this was for well being and not covered under the plan.  After further discussion they said if I got a doctors note that said it was physical therapy, they would consider it. I had my Chiropractor write a prescription for yoga as physical therapy.  The plan administrators reviewed and approved It and now my yoga is paid for by my flexible spending plan.

Get creative in your thinking about how to make something work that when you first look at options, nothing comes to mind.  Go beyond the normal day to day solutions and come up with something creative. If you can’t think of a way, ask a friend or expert for some advice.  That will help trigger your own creativity.  Think on it and ask yourself what can I do?  Walk away from it and let your mind produce the answer when its ready.  It may take a day or two but if you keep focusing on wanting an answer, an answer will come to you.

There’s a saying that what you focus on expands.  If you focus on getting a solution, your mind will expand into that solution.  The key is to come up with a creative way that is perhaps outside the box from the normal ways you could achieve what you are looking to achieve.  This is what you use when the “normal” ways put up road blocks.  You figure a way to go around, under, over or through that block until you come up with a solution.

So get creative and GoPINK!