Chapter 6:: Communicate Positively and Expect The Best

Chapter 6: Communicate positively and expect the best
Author: Brian Tracy
How you communicate largely determines the quality of your life. In a study, senior executives
were asked to name the most important skills in leadership and in business. Eighty-six percent said
that the ability to communicate was the key skill, more important than all others.
This ability to communicate includes not only communication with others, but also how you
communicate with yourself in terms of your inner dialogue and positive self-talk.
Your Explanatory Style

Fully 95 percent of your emotions are determined by your inner dialogue or “explanatory style.”
When you explain things to yourself and others in a positive, constructive way, you remain calm,
clear, and in control of the situation. If you explain or interpret things in a negative way, you
immediately become negative, angry, and less effective.
Choose your words carefully. Use positive words rather than negative words. Instead of using the
word problem, which is a negative word that triggers negative emotions, use the word situation,
which is a neutral word. Even better, use the word challenge. Say, “We are facing an interesting
challenge here today,” or an unexpected challenge, or an unusual challenge.
A challenge is something that you rise to something that brings out the very best in you and in
others. It is actually something that you look forward to in a positive way.
The best word of all to use to describe a problem is the word opportunity. Some of the biggest
opportunities in business and in life initially come disguised as problems, obstacles, or even
complete failures of a product or a career.
Positive Self-Talk
Always speak positively about yourself. Be careful never to say anything about yourself that you do
not want to be true. Never criticize yourself or put yourself down. If you make a mistake,
immediately cancel it by saying something like, “Next time I’ll do better.”
When people ask you how things are going, you tell them everything is going great. Even if you are
having problems, you don’t need to voice your concerns or share your problems with others.
Program your Subconscious

When you speak positively to yourself about yourself, these words are soon accepted by your
subconscious mind as commands. Your subconscious mind will then actualize feelings, body
language, and emotions that are consistent with your self-talk. Speak to yourself the way that you
want to be, not the way you may be today. The more you do this, the more you will feel the
emotions that are consistent with your words. Remain optimistic and cheerful on the outside. Be a
constant voice of encouragement and reinforcement to the people around you. Tell your staff that
they are doing a good job. Thank them on a regular basis for small and large accomplishments.
Positive Expectations
One of the most powerful motivational tools of all is maintaining positive expectations, both of
yourself and others. This is why you look for the good in people and in every situation.
The effect of positive expectations has been researched for many years at Harvard University by
David Rosenthal. What he found was that we tend to get not what we want, but what we expect in
life. Not only that, but your expectations, spoken or unspoken, have a powerful effect on the
behavior of other people. When you are growing up, the expectations your parents had for you had
an inordinate impact on the person you became and your beliefs about yourself as an adult. Most
problems in adult life can be traced back to criticism and negative expectations experienced in the
first three to five years of life.
Your Expectations Affect your Life

Your expectations of your spouse and children have an inordinate impact on how they turn out and
how they feel about themselves. Always tell them that you expect the very best from them in
whatever they do. The expectations of your boss have a direct influence on your performance and
how you feel about your work. The very best bosses are known as “positive expectations bosses.”
They are always expressing a high level of confidence in the people that report to them.
Your expectations of your staff influence them as well. The rule is always to look for the good in
each person and expect the best. You will seldom be disappointed. Finally, your expectations of
yourself are the most influential of all. If you expect to do well, you will do well. If you expect to
be successful, you will be successful. If you expect to follow through with your diet or your
learning plan, you will probably do it.
Expect Great Things

When you expect great things from yourself and the people around you, you’ll seldom be
disappointed. But if you expect negative things, you will seldom be disappointed there, either.
W. Clement Stone, one of the richest men in America in his time, having started as an orphan
delivering papers on the streets of Chicago, urged each person to become an “inverse paranoid.”
A paranoid is a person who is convinced that the world is conspiring to hurt him in some way.
Paranoids are distrustful and suspicious of others. They expect the worst in almost every situation.
They are constantly looking over their shoulder, convinced that others are “out to get them.”
An inverse paranoid, on the other hand, is a person who is convinced that the world is conspiring to
do good, to help the person be more successful. Inverse paranoids look upon every person, problem,
and situation as part of a large conspiracy that has been organized to help them be more successful
in the future.
Communicate positively with yourself. Communicate positively with others. Always expect the
best. Always look for the good. Always tell people how much you appreciate and believe in them.
You will be amazed at the difference this outlook will make in your career.

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Chapter 6: Communicate positively and expect the best

Author: Brian Tracy

Your Explanatory Style

Program your Subconscious

Your Expectations Affect your Life

Expect Great Things

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