By Rintu Basu, Master Linguist and author of “Persuasion Skills Black Book: Practical NLP Language Patterns for Getting The Response You Want”
Let me show you how you can transmit thoughts directly into another person’s head. And then get them to refocus in a different direction. Would that be useful? How would you use a skill like that?
Do you want me to show you again?
Okay, let me be serious for a moment. Just by reading these musings of mine I have taken your mind and pointed it in a particular direction. Granted, I might not know exactly which direction. You might be confused and have started thinking about the latest episode of your favourite TV show or you might have noticed that I am definitely steering your mind in a particular direction.
Now, you might get a little uncomfortable as you read on. Or, I am hoping you might get a little intrigued and have already started to think about how you might utilise this process in interesting ways for your life.
For example, how might you use simple ideas about creating some anticipation in your communications that might draw people in to want to listen to you?
Perhaps you could use the idea to get your children to settle and listen to what you have to say? Or imagine drawing the boss into your proposals for a pay rise? Maybe getting your partner hot and excited in anticipation for date night?
How about this as an idea: you talk to yourself in your head, don’t you? I don’t know the sorts of things you say to yourself but imagine using a process of structuring your language to get yourself excited, happy, looking forward to whatever you are going to do next?
I love language. I love it because it gives me
the ability to reach right into the minds of my audience and point them in a
direction. The thing is whenever you communicate with anyone (including
yourself) this is exactly what you do to your audience as well.
Now that you know that, would it make sense to learn how you can structure what
you say to point people (including yourself) in useful directions? If you
agree, then spend a few minutes thinking about how, where and when you might
find that skill useful because in this miniseries of articles we will look at
some interesting ways using our communications to point people in particular
directions.
Questions are the Answer
Have you noticed how easy it is to direct a person’s focus through a simple question?
I have an idea that the quality of a person’s life is based on the quality of the questions that you ask of yourself. Let’s take a hypothetical example to illustrate the point.
Imagine a person that is in the middle of a
huge mess. They could ask themselves a question like, “How did I get myself
into this mess?” Alternatively, they could ask themselves, “How can I resolve
this mess that I am in?”
Obviously, there aren’t just these two questions to be asked and neither is
mutually exclusive. But for a moment just stick to these two for the sake of
the illustration.
Can you see how the first question is problem-focused and the second is outcome orientated? In different contexts both are useful, neither is right or wrong and each one directs the mind to a different element of the person’s current reality.
Does that mean, just by asking a particular question you can direct the focus and attention of your audience?
If you can accept this idea, how would you use it in your personal life?
Is taking the direction of someone’s thoughts and moving it in a particular direction really as simple as this?
If you can consider this as a possibility then in the next article we will look at the concept a little deeper. But for the moment I would like to leave you with a question. If it is possible to point people in a particular direction just through a simple question how would you use that skill?
Article by Rintu Basu, international bestselling author of The Persuasion Skills Black Book: Practical NLP Language Patterns for Getting The Response You Want, helps people hone their persuasive abilities to get the most from themselves and others.
