What do, “Microsoft Works”, “diet ice cream” and “religious tolerance” have in common?

What do, “Microsoft Works”, “diet ice cream” and “religious tolerance” have in common?

They’re a contradiction-in-terms, oxymorons.
In fact, the word “oxymoron” is one too (not one two), since “oxy” comes from the Greek word for ‘sharp’... ie. “Sharp Moron”. Whoever made-up the word had a real sense of humour.

Lesson #2: contradict yourself.

Nelson Mandela was famously quoted, during his inaugural speech, for saying “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure”. Indeed, Mandela hadn’t said these words at all, as transcripts would prove. It was actually taken from the book “a Return to love”, By Marianne Williamson, 1992, and attributed to Mandela by mistake.

Whose words they are, is irrelevant. What matters is the great contradiction in term that exists in the world of self empowerment. How can our fear come from our power? Why, if we are powerful beyond measure, would we fear it?

It is brilliantly simple. We are so hell bent on letting our fears rule our lives, and so determined, unconsciously, to hold on to our fears in order to give our lives a sense of safety. What better way to plant a hypnotic suggestion for the masses to feel powerful, than to turn it into a fear. From a neuro-linguistic point of view, unconscious thought is more powerful than the conscious thought, and manipulating words in this way hold great hypnotic impact. I bet, most people felt a rush of enthusiasm when they heard the quote for the first time, even if it didn’t make logical sense.

So, learning from this quote, I present you with this challenge. Come up with a contradiction within yourself and use to change your frame of thinking from negative to positive, from weakness to strength. Here’s an example:
What if you suddenly decided that you are the biggest loser of all time. Wouldn’t it be great... to have the power to lose all self-defeating mentality, and lose all negative thoughts, and lose all the excess weight, and lose all fear of failure, and lose and lose...

Well, it is now up to you start changing the meaning of words in your own mind’s vocabulary. If you come up with any, don’t be shy, post them in the comments below.

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