Being a hypnotist, you may think that my next statement is peculiar.

“There is no power in a suggestion.”

Yesterday, I was doing one of the hundreds of radio interviews I do each year on the topic of hypnosis and one of the hosts asked me if I ever used my “power” to influence someone to do my bidding.

My response was that I have no power to make anyone do anything. He said, “But you have the power of suggestion.” I said there is no power in a suggestion itself. The real power of a suggestion is the timing of its delivery.

How many times have you offered valuable advice at the wrong time?

There was no power in that suggestion. All suggestions are inert, unless they come with proper timing.

The old axiom of “The teacher will be there when the student is ready” aptly explains this phenomenon.

You can have the best suggestion a person will ever hear in their lifetime but it will die on the vine if given to an unfertile mind at the wrong time.

The key is to prepare the soil so your suggestion is received without resistance, so you can use what is also the key component of telling a joke – timing.

The mistake we all make is throwing up on people. That means we offer unsolicited advice without any sensory acuity as to whether that person is in a frame of mind to receive it. We just want to have our say when we want to say it and we wonder why they don’t follow our sage advice. Reminds me of a story I’ve told a few times . . .

Suppose a wife wants her husband to take her to a new movie on a Friday night. She hasn’t said anything yet and it’s Friday. She looks out the window and sees her husband coming to the door. She also notices that he has steam coming out his ears. She guesses he’s had a rough day at work. But nonetheless she wants him to take her to the movies tonight so she asks him as soon as he enters the door. How effective is her suggestion?

Perhaps you just laughed at how stupid her strategy was but may not recognize how often you use a similar strategy.

What if upon noticing the steam, she joined the conversation going on in his head and said something like, “Honey, it looks like you’ve had a bear of a day, please tell me about it.” She lets him launch into his story as she prepares him his favorite beverage and leads him to a comfortable chair. Possibly a soothing shoulder rub is involved. When she notices the steam has subsided and he’s back to his normal self, she says, “There is this new movie I’ve been dying to see and I would really like you and me to see it tonight.” What are her chances for that suggestion taking hold now versus a half hour before? Much better!

That’s the real power of suggestion.

You must pay attention otherwise you are scattering seeds on hardened soil.

Now this may seem like pure common sense to you, and it is. The reality is how uncommon the practice is.

I don’t know if you’re ready to hear this suggestion or not, so put it on ice until it makes sense to you – Become aware or you’ll be talking to thin air.

All the best,

John

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