Work or Fun – Do Words Change Minds?

Are you in the business of influencing, persuading and convincing folks to use your
product or service, and not your competitor? We all have a boss, someone to report
to, even if it is the Board of Directors.

Decisions are not mechanical or mathematical – they are at least 50% and more likely up to 85% emotional. If you are depending on your Will-Power, you left-brained logic and reasoning to make the optimal decisions or convince others – NGH it is Not-Going to-Happen. Homo sapiens are emotionally-driven by their right-hemisphere.

Obligation to Work or Have Fun

If you want to motivate your team or division or even one-single-person, there is one-word that tickles our brain to listen to your appeal. It is F-U-N. Folks will
instantly decide to pay attention and be aroused to at least listen, if you first convince them your proposition is NOT 100% business (obligation to WORK).

Inner Child

It takes about five-seconds to get the hardest headed executive to switch from
studying statistics for an important presentation – to thinking about playing and
having F-U-N. If he/she loves golf and you throw a golf ball at them to see, or just
say – Tiger Wood, their brain automatically shifts to PLAY mode. How do you know?

Watch their face and particularly their eyes – they instantly smile using three sets of muscles in particular: a) risorius muscles b) zygomatic muscles c) orbicularis oculi (eyelids). They show crow’s eyes and raise the sides of their mouth, which is an indication of a genuine (not phony) smile.

Our inner child is about 10-12 years old and he/she is always ready to play a game.
Toss a rolled up paper ball and in 60-seconds you have a group basketball game.

So What

A new study in the Journal of Consumer, September 2010, Professor Juliano Laran, University of Miami, made this vital point about persuasion.

Folks spending money lose emotional self-control; they have difficulty exercising
self-regulation. They see it – they want it, and not later, but now. The ability to
postpone Immediate Gratification is about 10%. It is on par with a 10-year old
seeing a toy he/she wants. Often, this is the wrong decision and wasteful.

Who Cares

To get folks to stop-look-and-listen, we must reframe our proposition
from An Obligation to Work (act like an adult), stick to a healthy diet,
finish their homework, to an Opportunity to have F-U-N or play-a-game.

Get This

When they tested both low and high self-control people in various studies,
when the word – F-U-N is included in the instructions (aloud or in writing),
even the immediate-gratification folks perceived it as F-U-N, and not work.

Result: they changed their mind, their mood, and motivation. They stopped
complaining and acting like noisy preschoolers. They used their left-brain,
and consciousness (will-power), and stopped their emotions from hijacking
reason, planning, and logic. One-word did it – F-U-N.

Prizes

Humans are hardwired for pleasure. We want a Reward, a Prize, and it is
caused by our Basal Ganglia (brain), and specifically in the Substantia Nigra
and our Nucleus Accumbens. The neurotransmitters that trigger it are
Dopamine and Nonepinephrine (attention and arousal).

Do not use money because it reminds us of our obligation to work. Offer the
equivalent to money – a two-hour paid lunch – a horse-and-carriage ride around
the park, or a three-day weekend. Contests are great, but make it a game. Teams
are great, and all share in the prize (weekend cruise to Nowhere).

Mindset And Willpower

You can program and condition your nonconsciousness by repetition - to do what
your conscious mind (willpower), left hemisphere, and logic and reason set as goals.

Scientific research is clear that the reason we cannot change our mind and behaviors is because we refuse to use enough repetition to convince our automatic
non-consciousness to do it the new way.

Google: Psychological Science October 2010, by Veronika Job, Stanford University
Refreshing or procrastinating is a mindset, not a physical necessity.

It means your belief in Will-Power as a non-limited resource makes you stronger
in your ability to continue to work through challenges. Some folks must stop every
15-minutes for a drink, snack or a break, other can be powerfully productive for
up to 90-minutes without the need for a diversion.

The research indicates it-is-all-in-your-mind. If you believe you use up will-power like a car uses up gasoline, you will be proven correct and you will have to stop
every 10-15-minutes. If your mindset is that you are engaged in an exciting, interesting project – you never quit until you are done. You can resist more temptations.

This is evidence in the power of personal beliefs as a driver of volition, emotion and
behavioral outcomes. How? Repetition convinces your non-consciousness that your
conscious mind decides when to stop – not some biological signal.

Endwords

You can condition, program and associate both your left and right hemispheres,
logical and emotional areas of your brain, by combining consciousness with non-
consciousness. Consciousness is your Will-Power and it must lead your automatic
processes (nonconsciousness) to change and follow a new paradigm.

How?

Three-ways: repeat your affirmation 100-times, (Every day, in every way, we are speed learning better-and-better, and it is getting easier-and-easier). Visualize mental imagery (brain-movie of your success) 100-times, and lastly, add emotion by applauding for your success, jumping up and cheering 100-times.

Do these things repetitiously over 21 consecutive days, and it creates a habit. Why?
You want to Condition-Program-Associate your mind-body-connection for improvement. Your consciousness leads nonconsciousness to change and success.

See ya,

If you believe reading and remembering three (3) books, articles and reports, in the time your competitors can hardly finish one, help you with school and career success, ask us for our free, no-strings-attached speed reading report.

copyright © H. Bernard Wechsler, 2010. www.speedlearning.org hbw@speedlearning .org

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Bio: 

Author of Speed Reading For Professionals, published by Barron's.
Business partner of Evelyn Wood, (1907-1995) creator of speed
reading, graduating 2-million, including the White House staff
of four U.S. Presidents: Kennedy-Johnson-Nixon-Carter.