Persuasion Artist

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photo credit: Coffee Break

Let’s play a game! I am going to tell you a story that happened last night in a conversation with my friend. And I will reveal the language I used to persuade him, I won’t reveal the strategies in the post. Your job is to see if you can spot my covert persuasion strategies, some will be obvious other will be less obvious. The person who finds the most persuasion strategies wins! Hint: My persuasion skills don’t have an off button; if I am talking I am pretty much up to something.

I was talking to a friend yesterday and he said “Persuasion is B.S. Just be yourself.”

I always find it interesting when people try to persuade me to not use persuasion, because they are in that very moment contradicting themselves. Moreover, for whatever egocentric reason my friend was attempting to get me to change my extremely thought out and insightful perspective on human communication based on years of study; he was going to have to do a much job than a direct command if he wanted to persuade Bill

So I replied, “Just so we are on the same page, when you say just be yourself, which self specifically are you referring too?”

He looked at me puzzled. “What the hell are you talking about!?”

“I know that sounds odd, but when you really STOP and think about it, every person has many selves, don’t they?

There is the pure and uncorrupted self you were when you were a baby, there is the self you were when you were a teen who though he had all the secrets to the Universe, there is the self you were even five years ago who knew less about the ever changing world than the self of your today knows now, and there is even the self from the future you strive to be, the enlightened, intelligent, successful self.

I was reading psychology today and there was an article about how many psychological schools of thought proclaiming there is a multitude of mini-selves or sub-personalities that make up the individual personality or self. You have the analytical self, the anger self, the spiritual self, the lover self, even the golfer self. They say you have all these different mini-selves that make up you.

Paralleling this psychological truth is a spiritual philosophy that underneath all of these sub personalities is your true self, or soul. That is what spirituality is all about, the life long journey to find our true selves.

So again my friend I ask you, when you say Just be yourself. Which self specifically, were you referring too?

“Well, uh…” (Frustration) You are using that hypnosis stuff on me aren’t you? You’re just f*cking with my mind now.”

How do you know I am f*cking with your mind, maybe I am not? Maybe right now I am talking to your insightful self, that part of you whom understands this message on a deeper level. I wonder what would happen if after this conversation today you had a dream, a vivid dream where your intellectual self has a conversation with the self that says to me just be yourself and persuades that part of you to understand what were are talking about today.

I wonder how quickly and easily then you will realize that it is not the slick banter of a guy who calls himself Persuasion Artist, but a deep psychological truth speaking through him.

And your probably shouldn’t see yourself agreeing with me on this issue now, but only do that as naturally and easily as your find reasons on your own that allow you to see this message clearly. And as that happens you will realize underneath all these words the message is; it’s not about being yourself. It’s about being your best self. Persuasion skills allow you to be your best self, don’t they?

Quiz: What Covert Persuasion Strategies Did I Use to Persuade my Friend?

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