Inspiration for You

Shaping the Way: 7 Principles of Influence

Influence is the art of winning people's cooperation when you do not have, or do not want to use, the authority to make them do what you want them to do. It involves shaping the way people feel and think.

  1. Make people feel understood.  Spend less time trying to make people understand what you want, and more time making them feel understood.
  2. Find common ground. Show people how their needs, values, and dreams mesh with yours.
  3. Listen. Listening is the best way to make people feel understood and, at the same time, to find common ground.
  4. Don't argue. In business (and at home, too) the person you defeat in an argument today may be the person whose cooperation you need tomorrow.
  5. Care about the people you want to influence. If you are concerned about the people you're trying to win over, if you value their needs and dreams, they'll know it.
  6. Help people believe change is possible. People often know, although they won't often admit, that they need to change.
  7. Time your request well. There's a time and a season for everything, especially for asking for support.

Source: http://www.wittcom.com/communication_tips.htm


Getting There: "Power lasts ten years. Influence not more than a hundred." -Korean Proverb

 

Comfort along the WAY

We all experience times when we are in need of comfort. None of us is strong enough to bear up under life's trials and disappointments alone. In Ellen White's writings we find many quotations she wrote to comfort others. May these encouraging words help you in your time of need:

HOPE

"When our hopes of life seem to be slipping away, Jesus is ready to put his everlasting arms beneath us, and to draw us to his heart and comfort, encourage, and bless us."  Sign of the Times, March 1890

PROVISION

"Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing. Those who accept the one principle of making the service of God supreme, will find perplexities vanish and a plain path before their feet." Ministry of Healing, 481