useful words - bob the builder

in daniel pink's bestselling book to sell is human, he argues that all of us are in sales.  when we have a family meeting about where to vacation, or recommend a course of action at work, we persuade others.

unlike traditional sales gurus, such as og mandino, napoleon hill, or tony robbins, who recommend we tell ourselves how fabulous we are, pink suggests we talk to ourselves the way bob the builder does - in questions.

if you haven't had preschoolers recently, bob is a stop-motion animated guy running a construction company.  in his overalls and hard hat, bob is always running into trouble.  here's what he says:

can we fix it?  

yes we can!

pink argues that recent research shows that when participants used 'interrogative self-talk" in a series of experiments, they achieved more.  

why?  two reasons:

1.  first, asking yourself questions generates helpful feedback.  for instance, say you need to make a presentation.  if, instead of saying to yourself, "this will be easy!", you ask, "can i make a great pitch?", the question elicits useful feedback, such as, "sure!  i've pitched this idea twice before!", or "absolutely, but i spoke too fast last time, so i'll go slower today."  it helps you summon useful resources and strategies.

2.  questions generate intrinsic motivation - why you are pursuing this goal.  

so, here's to useful daniel pink, bob the builder,

and helpful talk.  

as pink says,

Can you do that?

Well, you'll have to ask yourself.

joy to you!
(more of artist jr monday.)