Don’t Think of a Purple Elephant
I’ve noticed several people do this in the past month so I thought I’d mention it.
Whenever you tell people not to do or think something, they have to go inside their head and make a representation of it before they can negate it. Even if they decide not to do it as you recommend, they’ll still have experienced whatever it was like to make that picture, sound, feeling, etc.
You may have heard it said that the subconscious doesn’t process negation at all. It will get you what you strongly focus on even if you’re trying to avoid it. It makes sense.
Instead, whenever you find yourself telling people what you don’t want, stop. Ask yourself what you do want and feature that. Most of the time that will accomplish the same logical argument without causing them to make an undesirable representation.
People don’t often consider the images they’re putting into other people’s heads. A friend was melting some wax on the stove and jokingly said not to eat it. I usually respond to comments like that with, “I was just about to, I’m glad you said not to.” They see the picture they just gave me and often realize how silly their statement was.
This is different than taking a problem/solution approach. That works too. You’ll have to test it to know which converts better for your particular context.
When you’re fine tuning your message, make sure to look for negations. See if there’s something else you really want your reader to be thinking about.
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