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

52

Give Them Meaning

Each day people go to work at the same place, doing the same thing, with the same people, getting the same results, going home the same route, and repeating it all over again tomorrow.

Familiarity certainly provides comfort, but the repetitive life can also create a loss of meaning.

Humans have need for meaning in their life.

They don’t generally need meaning over and above the acquisition of comfort, familiarity, eating, a safe place to live, or reproducing.

But once those items are satisfied, life does need to have some meaning to it or the human mind begins to become dysfunctional.

When people tell you that what you are doing matters in life, it makes you feel something more than good. It makes you feel empowered. It gives you strength. It rejuvenates you, and it creates instant respect and liking from you for that person.

Giving someone meaning is not saying “You did a great job on that.” (This is a comment specific to their effort.)

It’s also not “You are so smart!” (This is specific to their attribute of intelligence.)

Viktor Frankl wrote that meaning is the primary motivational force in man.

M.I.T. researchers found what might be the two puzzle pieces that fit together to create the center of meaning. A series of experiments where people accomplished elementary tasks offered fascinating revelations.

Subjects would do mindless tasks longer and for less financial reward as long as another person was there to observe them finish their work.

Another finding ...