Modal Operators

See the difference between these two sentences:

1) I have to read this text.

2) I want to read this text.

In sentence 1, we have a duty, an order, a law to be made. It feels, for most of us, like pressure, of being forced to do it, of being an obligation. In sentence 2, the scheme is already different: I wish, I want, I want to read this text now.

Well, the difference between sentence 1 and sentence 2 is really small. But it changes everything, doesn’t it?

And this is the 16th way to change a meaning that we found in the book Mind-lines, lines for changing minds.

In technical terms, we changed our modal operators.

Sentence 1 uses the necessity operator (have to, should, should, need to do…) while sentence 2 uses the possibility operator (I want, I wish, I can…).

There is also the impossibility operator: (I can’t, I can’t, I can’t…)

We can use this 16th way of resignifying things in many ways, of changing the meaning we give.

My dear friend Sarbélia Assunção, who taught me a lot about NLP, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, told us in her course: do the pleasure of homework (instead of homework or homework). The objective was to change the way we thought about that activity to be carried out.

Feel the difference:

I have to do homework (homework).

We want to do activity (pleasure from home).

Another way to use this 16th way is to ask: what if you thought differently about this? Wouldn’t that be better?

For example, “Wouldn’t it be better to have a want-to-do attitude rather than an obligatory attitude?”

Read Also: 4 Types of Core Beliefs in Drug Addiction – Cognitive Psychology

Or, “What would it be like if this experiment were done differently?”

Or even: “And if you thought differently – the opposite – of what you are thinking, wouldn’t it be better?”

I end here by quoting a text by Sarbélia Assunção, from her blog:

“Whenever you feel something preventing you from achieving your goals, step back a little, observe yourself and realize that the power is within you. Start by changing the words, discover and prove the strength inside you. You just need to have the courage to change your thinking pattern and access what is most special: your mental power”.