SNS85 Saturday Night Special – Changing People’s Minds
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Welcome to tonight's. Saturday night, special episode 85.
[00:00:07]RJ Jackson: [00:00:07] I'm RJ Jackson, the courage giver. I encourage you to have the courage you need to live your calling. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.
[00:00:24]so you need
[00:00:25] Scott Maderer: [00:00:25] to pay attention. Is this someone who is capable of reflecting? Is this someone who's able to look at their own beliefs and behaviors openly? Is this someone that is open-minded and by the way, if you aren't open-minded and you aren't able to reflect that, I guarantee you that you are holding some erroneous beliefs right now.
[00:00:45] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true [00:01:00] calling and the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself.
[00:01:04] Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:12]And tonight Saturday night special. I share some tips on changing people's minds when they believe they've thought critically about something, but perhaps they really haven't. I share how it's hard to shift. Once people have brought in information and tied it to their beliefs, into their identity. And I also share some specific tips on how you can help them make that shift.
[00:01:35] Now, one area that a lot of folks need some help with. Is around the area of productivity, getting not just more things done, but actually getting the right things done can be really tough. I've got a course called productivity for your passion. That's designed to help you do this and then to hold you [00:02:00] accountable and walk with you so that you can tailor productivity, not just to be getting more done.
[00:02:07] But actually getting the right things done. What's more, we take the approach of looking at your personality and how you actually look at things in the world and tailor the productivity system to your personality. Cause the truth is a lot of the systems that are out there are written really well for somebody with a particular personality type.
[00:02:27] But if you have a different approach to things, they just don't work, but there's tools and techniques and approaches that you can take that will work for anyone. And we help you do that and productivity for your passion. Check it out over@inspiredstewardship.com slash launch. One of those things that comes up from time to time is how do you change people's minds?
[00:02:52] How do you help other people realize that perhaps they haven't thinking critically about something and they [00:03:00] need to actually change their opinion. Maybe it's a position that's out there or something that you're seeing on Facebook or other places. And by the way, I would not engage in this argument that we're going to talk about today on Facebook, because it doesn't work well, but perhaps somebody hasn't really thought that critically about a particular position.
[00:03:21] And instead they've actually just arrived at some sort of position through their beliefs through there. Understanding of something or because someone that they know or trust has told them this, as correct. And they haven't really spent any time or energy thinking critically. In other words, how do we help people understand that the information that they have might be wrong?
[00:03:46] It doesn't really matter if you are right. Either you could have 100% the correct view, but simply being right in your own view, doesn't help other people see how perhaps their information is [00:04:00] incorrect. And I want to. Preface this too with be very careful because oftentimes we think we've thought critically.
[00:04:07] We think our position has been arrived at through critical thinking. And in reality, it hasn't. So these same things that I'm going to talk about that you can look at for other people. Actually applies for every belief that you have as well. You have to examine your own beliefs and think critically about them.
[00:04:26] Before you ever try to engage with someone else to help them shift their beliefs. And the truth is it's always hard to make a shift because once people have taken in a belief and they've integrated it into who they are, it becomes part of their identity if not wearing a mask because you believe that it doesn't help slow down the spread of the virus.
[00:04:52] Identify as who you are from a political standpoint or from a mindset standpoint or from a belief standpoint, then [00:05:00] whether or not any information is shared, that shows that position might be wrong. It doesn't matter because you will come out of that with the belief that you are right. Because anything that shows you differences in that anything that shows you differently will end up telling you that your identity is wrong.
[00:05:24]It attacks who you are, not just the belief that you have and the minute that happens, all of your defenses go up. So here's a couple of tips to look at first off, if they haven't thought critically about it at all, it may seem like the best way to do this as to attack their misunderstanding, to attack the belief that they have.
[00:05:48] But very seldom does that work because again, When we attack someone's belief, we often are attacking their view of who they are, and [00:06:00] that leads to setting up their hackles. Instead, you need to concentrate on your position, share your position, and share the facts that help. Sure up your position. What is the information that makes your position correct?
[00:06:17] Don't attack the incorrectness of theirs. Share the correctness of yours. Any mention you have of a myth or erroneous belief. You need to make sure that you explicitly state that belief is a myth and then provide. Reason and alternative ex explanations that support the fact that is a myth. You state your claim, then you present and reinforce that claim with additional information and just address the erroneous belief and show the facts.
[00:06:51] What makes it erroneous. This does work, but the problem is. If the person has decided that they've thought critically [00:07:00] already, they often won't be open to hearing this argument. Have you ever gotten into a fight with someone where you're trying to change their mind and nothing you say seems to have any effect?
[00:07:12] What so ever the truth is that a lot of times that's because they're not open to changing their mind. They've already decided that they're right. So you need to pay attention. Is this someone who is capable of reflecting? Is this someone who's able to look at their own beliefs and behaviors openly? Is this someone that is open-minded.
[00:07:34] And by the way, if you aren't open-minded and you aren't able to reflect, then I guarantee you that you are holding some erroneous beliefs right now, but are you able to be open-minded to be flexible in your thinking? Are you able to seek out the truth? Even if that truth is something that you're not comfortable with?
[00:07:54] Are you able to be skeptical or is the other person able to be skeptical about their beliefs, but look at it [00:08:00] critically and are you, and they able to persevere and to work through hard and complex task. If those things are all true, then there is some hope that this methodology may still help them change their position.
[00:08:15] Even if. They haven't thought critically and believe that they have, or you haven't thought critically, but you believe that you have, and if that's true, then you can over time, begin to let people open their minds up to other views news. The truth is none of us hold views that aren't erroneous. All of us have some beliefs in our heart and in our minds that are probable not really true.
[00:08:44] We always do. But if you're able to hold your mind open and look at these beliefs critically and seek out additional information from factually based sources from sources, not just that reinforce what you already [00:09:00] believe in already think is true, but sources that are supported and are able to be shown to be relatively unbiased.
[00:09:08] Over time. If you're able to do that, then over time, you can shift those beliefs and begin to make more and more of your beliefs are the person you're talking to is beliefs aligned with truth over time. Thanks for listening.
[00:09:26]thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listened, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired
[00:09:48] stewardship.com/itunes
[00:09:52] Scott Maderer: [00:09:52] rate.
[00:09:53] All one word iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating [00:10:00] and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .