You’re being lied to – by yourself!
In my recent seminar I shared this analogy:
Magician 1 tells you that his cards are legit and that they are not manipulated.
Magician 2, on a different evening, simply hands you a deck of cards and asks you to shuffle them.
Who is the more successful magician?
It’s Magician 2 because he gets you to lie to yourself instead of lying to you. Magician 1 is unnecessarily directing attention to the fact that the cards might be manipulated. Magician 2 simply hands you the cards, which “implies” that they are normal cards.
The mind continually creates meaning, regardless of what’s true or real. If Magician 2 let’s you shuffle the cards, you’re likely to MAKE IT MEAN that the cards are legit. Others in the audience are likely to conclude the same. The audience usually also concludes that the person the cards were handed to is not secretly working with the magician.
The reason it’s easy to fool people is because they fool themselves. You are more likely to believe a lie you tell yourself than one told by others. This may seem like a small weakness in the human ego, but it’s exploited by marketers, politicians and other psychos daily.
Have you ever looked at a photo of yourself and been surprised at how you look? Or heard an audio of yourself and been surprised by how you sound? Then there’s a discrepancy between what your mind thinks is happening to what’s actually happening. The only reason you’d be surprised is because you had the wrong idea of how you look or sound.
Have you ever thought you have a product or service that is awesome but nobody wants it? Again, the mind is lying to you, telling you that your product is great. But if it’s not being bought, maybe it isn’t.
This is why it’s good to request honest Feedback. To record yourself on camera now and then. Or to imagine viewing yourself from the eyes of others. And to be somewhat aware of deception and self-deception. To confront what’s really going on.
Know what-is then you can change it to the better.
