Language is the Key (part 2)

Last month, I wrote about how the language we use to describe an event sets, in our own mind, the emotional content of the event. This month, I want you to take that idea and now apply it outside of yourself.

On one level, the words we say will directly affect the thinking of the listener. If you want to take your skills to the next level, begin to observe the listener, and make some good guesses as to their state, then use the words you need to get the results you want.

Whatever you say to another person, they will make meaning of it for themselves. In doing so, they take your words along with any semantics they learned that are associated with them, and express those words in their own mind through a whole host of of filters.

As a simple example, if you used the word, "useless" in your speech, the listener who is interpreting "useless", while they are in an empowered stated, might immediately begin to think of opportunities or solutions to make "useless" into "productive". They could actually get energized through problem solving! The listener who is already in a state of apathy might just go deeper into apathy as they assign meaning to "useless".

George Bernard Shaw said, "The trouble with communication is the illusion that it occurred."

Remember, what you say is never what the listener hears. Well, it is what they hear... not what they understand. ;-)

Plan your words with the state and filters of your listener in mind.