When the Glass is One Tenth Full

Do you focus on the positive even when there’s much less than half of it there?

When you have a choice, it’s usually better to tell people what they can do rather than can’t. Here are three examples:

I was just reading an e-book titled, “The Top Ten Secrets of Instant Wealth” by Salad Seminars CEO Jamie Smart. Normally I would pass over anything like that but I’ve recently acquired two sets of Salad playing cards.

The book talks about using better questions for wealth. Rather than seeing something and saying, “I can’t afford it,” he suggests asking, “How can I afford it?” When the glass is half full, it significantly affects your expectations and outcomes.

The second example is that I sometimes see marketers bad mouth “hypnotic techniques.” Here’s a quote from an article in the Early to Rise e-zine (July 31st Issue):

“Don’t try to be a copywriter. Just explain what you’ve got and why anyone should care - and then just get out of the way.

“In other words, don’t mess around with mystical, manipulative tactics that are supposed to magically vacuum money out of your prospects’ wallets while they grin stupidly in a hypnotic trance.

“Just talk to people. Be interesting. Be respectful of their time. Share value. Make your pitch. And shut up.”

A valid point the author was trying to make was to not try too hard by using hype. He’s telling you to do exactly what good copywriters do while telling you not to try to be a copywriter.

The take away from that is that the writer must not know how to use hypnotic language patterns. There’s more opportunity then for those of us that do.

The final example was the one that prompted this post. I went to see a movie at our local IMAX theater. It’s inside a state history museum. While everyone was waiting in line, one of the museum employees made an announcement with an interesting one tenth full twist.

He announces that food and drinks will be allowed in the theater as long as they were water with screw top bottles and candy bars still sealed in their wrappers. There’s no doubt that this approach was better received than telling people that no food or drinks were allowed except bottled water.

One of Henry Ford’s famous quotes was that you could have any color of Model-T car as long as it was black.

I found that approach humorous and effective. That was actually much less than one tenth full but you get the point… give people permission as much as possible for best results.