Compared to Yes

So, I’m walking into a building this morning from the cold Midwest weather. The guy walking in behind me commented “nice weather today.” It’s 20 degrees fahrenheit! I was thinking how cold it was, not how nice it was. I kind of facially gesture, “yeah, right” sarcastically by raising my eyebrows looking somewhat surprised at his stretch of an assessment. He notices and immediately adds, “compared to how it’s been.” I quickly retorted, “that’s true.”

That was genius! After I reverse engineered what just happened to me, I realized with just four words and a contraction, he changed my disagreeable response to an agreeable response mid-thought! Hopefully, your mind is racing with possibilities for this one.

I have a younger relative. He often has to sell himself to his teacher, if you know what I mean. When he says, “Hey, I’m a good student,” the teacher often gives the same facial gesture as I gave this morning. Now, he knows to interupt the teacher’s thought pattern with “compared to how I was at my last school.” Now, even if the teacher doesn’t know his record at his previous school, the teacher is still going to change his mind slightly towards agreeable through his thought of “I don’t know about that.” Hey, it’s a step in the right direction!

Previously, I blogged about contrast and comparison. Now you have another way to use it when you need it.

Photo credit: MoreTVicar.com