You have to lift a person up before you can really put them in their place. – Criss Jami
Have you ever changed your whole life or at least made a life changing decision based on a fortune cookie? No? Why not?
It would be simple to say that “no sane person would do that” and you would be right, but why?
Why not make life altering decisions based on a fortune cookie?
Well, for one thing, we have no trust in fortune cookies. We also have no admiration or respect for them, other than being cookies. Last, a fortune holds no authority over us. And since it holds no authority it can never influence us unless we let it.
And people are exactly the same. It is true that a chance meeting with a stranger can have life altering effects. If they say the right words in the right context we might just let ourselves be persuaded. But what would work even best is if we knew this person and respected them.
Even better than that, if the person giving out the “advice” is the person previously responsible for making our life better.
We are creatures of habit and of patterns. We will always trust more those who have proven best interest in our well being.
And this is exactly the kind of person you need to be. You have to “build up” a person before you have any say in how that person leads their life.
If you want to have true and strong authority over people, be the one that lifts them up. You’ll do fine.