How would you like to persuade yourself and others with the utmost of ease? To have that seemingly uncanny ability to get yourself and others to do what you want. Whether you are trying to persuade yourself or others, there is right way and a wrong way. The difference is subtle. I am going to give you a tip that top level communicators always use.
Say one is trying to persuade oneself to lose weight. Many people will ask themselves: Why don’t you try to lose weight? I used to ask myself that very question. There are two incongruities with this question.
Your unconscious mind actually processes in pictures. Since you can’t have a negative picture in your mind, your mind misunderstands that which is asked with a negative. For instance, if I were to say to you, don’t think of a blue tree. Whatever you do don’t think of a blue tree. The first thing you have to do is think of a blue tree.
So what are we really asking with the above question? You’re asking your mind for a list of reasons you don’t try to lose weight. Exactly what do you want the question to elicit? This is how all truly great communicators frame their questions. Ask yourself what specifically you are trying to communicate. In this example it looks like you want to lose weight. So the correct way of asking this question would be How about you lose weight? You then have a clear statement of what it is you want. Much clearer and easier to grasp. Wouldn’t you say?
What is the second problem? The word try. The word try implies that you will fail. Don’t believe me? Go ahead drop a pen on the floor and try to pick it up. Now if you really try hard, you won’t pick up that pen. By definition, if you succeed at picking up the pen, you did not try, you succeeded. If you decide to pick up the pen, more than likely you will. Trying to do something is useless. If you decide to accomplish a task, accomplish it. Giving your mind a command to try to do a task is asking it to fail. How are you programming your mind?
How about you do something different starting now.
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