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How You Can Harness the Power of Imitation
How you can leverage this human tendency for your benefit
Being a keen observer of ourselves is a highly desirable skill. Self-observation allows us to discover our unconscious processes, bring them into consciousness, and determine how we can use them to better our lives.
Last week I was in my office in the law firm where I work part-time, reading and summarizing documents.
The head of the firm, Robert, walked by. “What’s up, Paul,” he said as he passed my door.
“What’s up, Robert,” I replied.
A few minutes later, our office manager, Tina, walked by.
“Hey, Mister Paul,” she said.
“Hey, Miss Tina,” I replied.
Shortly thereafter, Andrew, the lawyer who is my office next-door neighbor, walked down the hall.
“How’s it going, Paul?” he said as he passed my door.
“Good, how’s it going, Andrew?” I replied.
Isn’t it funny how that works? I replied to each of my co-workers with almost exactly the same thing they said to me — even though it was different in each case.
I promise you I was not mocking my co-workers. I simply said the first thing that came to my mind…
