Subliminal Sabotage

Aha! Moment Monday

Are your words sabotaging your best efforts?

I was in the bank today to deposit a cheque.  The teller seemed fairly new so I presented the cheque, explained the currency and to which account it was intended.

She responded with, ‘No problem”.

With a smile, I countered, “I hope it’s not a problem!”  then laughed at my comment.

I got the deer-in-the-headlights stare from her.

I replayed the conversation as she was stumped at my comment and completely unaware of her auto-responder – “no problem” –  which, by the way, she continued to use as we interacted further.

Two observations:

In an effort to be courteous, she, in reality, was associating me with potentially being a problem.

Because her response was automatic, repeating “no problem” was becoming engrained in her work attitude, (Remember that the mind doesn’t compute a negative so if you focus on getting out of debt, for instance, what your mind actually sees is “debt”, not the fact that you want to get out of it. You need to focus on “abundance”).

Now, what was that credo again?  That customers are not an interruption to our work, they’re the reason for our work?

So if we joyfully serve but our words are subliminally contrary, are we undermining our best intentions?

Aha – “Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another” ~ Napoleon Hill

Like you, I’m a big believer that actions speak louder than words – and my teller really was delightful and efficient – however, we can’t ignore the impact words have on our emotions and those of others.

And make no mistake: our silent self-talk is equally as important as the words we say out loud.

Choose your words.  Choose your world.

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