Dream in Living Color
Posted by bodybydesign on December 26, 2006
Some people have the ability to give hope by painting a picture and motivating others into action. It’s not easy to paint a picture in vivid color.
Often, people who have the ability to paint a picture for us use words that their audience can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. They can appeal to our senses and we can hear and smell the popcorn popping. We can see, hear, and smell the bacon on the campfire and the coffee brewing.
When we think of a favorite movie we can see the scenes in our head, the expression of the actor and his words. I suspect some people could play each scene of their favorite movie in their minds eye. That’s how we have to view our hope in what we do and be able to vividly portray it to others.
That’s the kind of vision that a leader can paint for each of us. A vision that motivates us and a vision we certainly won’t forget.
Annette Simmons wrote in Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins, “Climb back down the mental ladder of conclusions you may have reached years ago, all the way to the sensory experiences that were your original raw data. Revisiting these original events helps you create a story with similar sensory experiences that will create similar perceptions for your listeners. When your listeners take in these sensory experiences in the desired order, you take them rung by rung through the steps of discovery and conclusions up the ladder you wish them to climb.
Regardless of what conclusions a story reinforces, it all begins with powerful sensory memories that activate strong good or bad associations, so you can direct those emotions toward new associations. When the new associations are stimulating enough to be remembered or retold, every ‘reexperiencing’ of the new associations further anchors the patterns and increases the probability that future events will trigger your new patterns of association. This is how urban legends gain acceptance–not because of their factual bases–but because of their power to stimulate strong emotional reactions.
Urban legends thrive when they trigger retelling urges inspired by strong emotional associations (e.g. Warning! Warning!). Vibrancy imprints imagined sensory memories before doubt has a chance to slam the door shut. The first time most people hear or read the ’stolen kidney’ legend about waking up in Las Vegas in a bathtub of ice without their kidneys, they imagine the ice in the bathtub, picture the hotel bathroom, and see the handwriting on the note that tells them to call the hospital–all before their frontal lobes have a chance to challenge the plausibility of strangers harvesting kidneys by drugging hotel guests.”
Here’s another story by Annette, “Imagine a cutting board, and on that board a juicy lemon warm from sitting in a sunny window. You can smell the oils of the zest. Imagine a very sharp knife and pick that knife up and cut the lemon in half. See the two halves rock away and beads of lemon juice collect and then drip down into a puddle. Now you can smell the juice as well as the zest. Take one of the halves and cut it in half again. Pick up one of the quarters and bring it to your mouth and bite deep, wrap your lips around it to make a yellow smile (like when we were kids), and let the juice run down your chin.”
Dream in Living Color and paint the vision you feel in your heart!
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