You really need to convince somebody of your argument. But they’re really stubborn. Wouldn’t it be great if you could climb inside their brain and rewire their synapses?
Well, actually, you can. And without years of training to be a brain surgeon. It’s very simple; it’s in how you choose language. A friend of mine told me a great story of a trainer she was working with. She was puzzled. He was good, but the scores that he got from people who trained were excellent. Five out of five. And more than that, the adjectives that people using to describe him were, embarrassingly complimentary. She asked him what his secret was. He laughed and explained that it was just simple auto suggestion.
“It works like this”, he said. “The scoring system goes from one to five, five being the highest you can score. At the end of the training, I remind people of the five sections I’ve trained them on. Also, the training ends at five o’clock, which I happen to mention. I then give them the forms to fill out. And, lo and behold, I seem to score rather a lot of fives.”