Once upon time, a woman said to her husband: “Look! It looks good. Guess what? It tastes good as well.” According to the Jewish and Christian bible, that is how sin came into place and all the bad things started to happen since then. Persuasive words, kind and well-formed ideas, good or bad intentioned environment influence, can definitely shape one’s personality, ideas, and decisions – no matter what.
How can one be persuasive against someone else ideas? One cannot. If one goes contrary to other person’s idea, the brain will trigger a natural defense that will automatically reject the new thought. For instance, if I tell you to leave your job now, you certainly won’t do it because it does not make any sense to your brain. However, if I gather enough information, being it truthful or not, about the advantages of leaving a certain job, your mind will feel that there is a possibility of me being right.
In other cases, people tend to sympathize to kind individuals. It is just natural to be polite to the ones that are polite to yourself, or be offensive to the ones that are rude as well. Being aware of it, saves one from being unnecessarily in trouble and as a bonus will also make your audience agree with you more easily.
Although persuasive words and kind behavior seems to be good things, wrong or out of scope words can do greater damage than a good one would do. It is common knowledge: Do one thousand good things and you are good. Do one bad, and everyone forgets the good things you’ve had done.
So, are we in control of what we think, or are we the result of the experiences with pass thru? Are we influenced by media, people, or even religion, or are we as rational as we think? Philosophers try to answer these questions for thousands of years and I am not in position give a verdict. However, I can say one thing: One word has the power to destroy one’s life as it has the same power to construct a beautiful relationship.
Daniel Paiva 