Conclusiones parciales

Why don‟t we do some drills on being artfully vague? If you‟re going to start talking about being artfully vague, there are some phrases you can use to start things off.

For example, let‟s say I want to give people a chain of commands.

Let‟s play with two of my favorite phrases: “It‟s not important”

and “I don‟t know.” Let‟s see what fun we can have with these two. Let‟s talk about the phrase, “It‟s not important.”

“As you sit there looking at me, becoming aware of the fact that there‟s something you really want to learn today, it‟s not important that you go inside and find that in a way that feels absolutely natural, powerful and compelling to you. It‟s equally not important whether you feel yourself pulled forward by an incredible desire or pushed ahead by a driving need.

“What‟s really important is that you recognize that that‟s the process of motivating yourself to move into action toward something you want for yourself.”

Did I say anything? When I start out by saying, “It‟s not important,”

it‟s powerful for a lot of reasons. When I say, “It‟s not important,”

you‟re not going to resist it because it‟s not important.

Have you ever heard someone say, “We need to talk. There‟s something very important we need to discuss”? What is your first response? Have you ever heard your girlfriend say, “We need to talk”? I‟ll say, “I do that better on a full stomach. Go make me a sandwich.”

Have you ever heard this one? “Where‟s this relationship going?”

“To the kitchen to make me dinner.” Score!

“It‟s not important” tends to dissipate resistance because they‟ll think, “I can relax. It‟s not something big they‟re throwing at me.” Also, it‟s not important according to whom? According to whom is it not important and to whom is it not important? There‟s one ambiguity.

Let‟s write down the ambiguities. “According to whom.” Learning this will also assist you in recognizing when someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. I have a detector in my head that picks up non-specified language.

“It‟s not important.” According to whom is it not important? To whom is it not important? In what way or ways is it not important? Milton Erickson used to use this all the time.

I have a poem, “Fascination,” that a student wrote and I rewrote. I like to read to women. One of the verses says, “It‟s not important that you find that all inhibitions are left behind.” It‟s not important, and when and where is it not important? There are four or five aspects of vagueness in those three words.

When you say, “It‟s not important,” then you begin to describe what it is you want them to experience. I like to use it like this. “It‟s not important whether you X, Y or Z,” where X, Y and Z represent the three different internal processes and flows of thought you want them to engage in.

Participant: By general flows of thought do you mean primary states?

Ross: No. I just mean, “It‟s not important whether you go inside and tune into how excited you are about what you‟re learning, or whether you find yourself visualizing all the benefits you‟re going to get from learning this, or whether you can recognize rapidly how excited you are to be learning this in a way that makes sense to you.

The way to structure this is to first start with the X, Y and Z. Say what the conclusions, ways of thinking and the filters are. Say what the conclusions are that you want people to draw about opening up to your message.

“It‟s not important that you recognize how exciting it is to be learning new and empowering information, or whether you can focus in on how exciting it is to do that, or whether you just find yourself naturally realizing that this is something you want to do.”

Think to yourself what the three major ways of thinking you want them to engage in are.

For example, you can have them recognize the value of something, realize the excitement about recognizing it, and then come to the conclusion they reach from that. Generally I‟ll say something like,

“It‟s not important” or “It doesn‟t matter.” “It doesn‟t matter” is just as good as “It‟s not important.” It‟s the same ambiguity.

“It doesn‟t matter whether you tune in to how excited you are about what you‟re learning, or whether you find yourself getting really excited, or whether you recognize that that‟s the process of stepping into a whole new discovery or direction that you want to take for yourself.”

By the way, during the election, did you hear both guys talking about new directions? “America needs a big, new direction.” I thought, “Did they take my course?”

Someone, give me your business, and I‟ll throw out specific examples.

Participant: Let‟s say somebody wants to buy a cream for their face.

Ross: “As you‟re rubbing this cream on yourself, feeling how good it is against your skin and enjoying how great it smells, it doesn‟t matter whether you tune in to how much you‟re enjoying it now or whether you picture to yourself how much you‟ll enjoy it in private when there‟s no one around.

“It doesn‟t matter whether you tune in and focus on how much you‟re going to enjoy giving this to someone else as a gift. I think what really matters is that you can find your own reasons to realize that this is something you want.” This is an example I‟m making up off the top of my head.

Participant: It‟s covering all the possibilities.