Invisible Influence: The Power to Persuade Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere

5

Your Trusted Self

Over the course of your life, you’ve developed many distinct “parts” or “employees,” right? Pick your favorite descriptor. They are used interchangeably.

The “you” of you is the CEO of the company. You are influenced by the employees. You behave differently in the presence of different employees. You focus on different functions of the company (you and your body) when you meet with the COO than you do the CFO. But ultimately you are fairly consistent in your behavior. You think. Your parts and employees don’t think. Your conscious mind doesn’t spontaneously react. It considers, evaluates, and decides.

Your brain, and all of its parts, operates at near the speed of light when reacting to a stimulus that might bring you harm. Your brain is in reaction mode before the influencer ever shows up. Your mind (which analyzes) doesn’t react; it responds. It resists. Your brain and all of its parts cause the body to behave, and then your mind justifies why your brain caused you to behave as it did just a half second ago. And that is the lag time between brain and mind.

I was playing catch with my son last night. When he throws quickly, there is no way my mind can possibly calculate where the ball is going and then end up there quick enough to catch the ball. My brain, however, enables me to catch the ball every time it is humanly possible to catch the ball.

I have a fairly good baseball player employee in my brain. He takes care of catching and throwing. If I (my conscious ...