Page 171 - Effective Communication Skills Mastery Bible 4 Books in 1 Boxset by Tuhovsky, Ian

what can you do to make the engines run at top speed and

finally take off?”, or, “Have you read the right manual on how

to fly this particular plane?”

There are many options. Going further, you could also say,

“Maybe you need to try taking off with a better, newer model
plane?” Or with humor, “Are you sure that you’re sitting

inside of a plane? Maybe it’s just a strange car?” Each of these

metaphors proposes different solutions or invites the other

person to discover a particular issue more deeply. “Next time

you better refuel your plane before trying to take off or you
will just drive all around the runway again and make ground

control laugh!”

The most unusual thing about metaphors is that the

subconscious mind will always find the relevant and

necessary meaning of a particular analogy. It often happens

that two different people find answers for two different
problems (which don’t have anything in common) in a single

metaphor. High flexibility of this fanciful linguistic structure

makes it useful in a plethora of situations. Maybe that’s why

it’s so widely used in many religious books and folklore

stories. It’s very helpful for our mind and our ancestors knew
about it.

Some time ago a friend and coworker told me: “I feel like I

have had my hands tied with a thick rope for a very long

time…” I asked him: “Do you want to run all over the place
and beg people to cut these ropes and free your hands, or

maybe you will finally pull yourself together, find a sharp

hook and tear them up to shreds?” He just nodded his head

significantly and said, “I definitely prefer to find the inner

strength and opportunity to tear these cords up.” This brief