9 Psychological Tricks that actually Work

We live in a world where the people in power want to stay in power, and for the most part, they’re going to be able to do that, But armed with these laws, you will know what they’re doing, and you can use these laws to get yourself in power. Now these laws are not unethical, just like the law of Gravity isn’t unethical. These are just laws, and you can use them however you wish, both good and bad.

1. Hide your intentions

Imagine you’re buying a new car at the dealership, and a car salesman shows you a model that you absolutely love, you tell the salesman how eager you are to own this car. The salesman knows your intentions, so he raises the price. Why? Because you gave him the power in the conversation. That’s why it’s so important to hide your intentions. Alright, let’s go back to our example. You love the car, but this time you act like you just don’t care. Now, you have the power, the salesman has to convince you to buy from him. Most of the time, salesmen will drive down the price just to win you over. So, if you want to gain psychological power, hide your intentions, hold the power in every exchange, make the final decision, because you want to stay in control. Give someone just enough details to stay interested but keep your true intentions to yourself.

2. Actions over arguments

You can argue as long and as hard as you want, you can take home the moral victory, but winning an argument achieves almost nothing! to gain psychological power, don’t waste your time arguing. if someone wants to argue, let them. If they get defensive, let them nurse their own ego. But you know that actions speak louder than words. Your behavior will win over more people than a good argument ever will.

3. Mind your words

The more you speak, the less valuable your speech becomes! This is one of the most important laws of psychological power. If you speak only when necessary, you increase the power of your words. People will learn to listen to you. They’ll learn to take you seriously. And you’ll earn their undying respect. So if you speak less, you also stop yourself from making clumsy mistakes. Many people run their mouths and then back themselves into a corner. They leak details or make promises they can keep. if you are mindful of what you say, you avoid these pointless mistakes. You ensure that every word is intentional and purposeful, and that gives you psychological power.

4. Cultivate confidence

Your path will be littered with obstacles, failures and setbacks, your luck will run out. People will tell you to quit, and your own brain will stand in your own way. But the people who give up, deprive themselves of psychological power. So, if you want to improve, cultivate confidence in your life. Let your small successes empower your self-worth. Let each victory give you the courage to overcome your next obstacles. Psychological power isn’t just your relationship with others, it’s also how you treat and motivate yourself.

5. Play yourself down

Everyone wants to feel intelligent. If you want to win people over, make sure they feel smart. Sometimes that means you must play dumb, but you already know you’re intelligent. The fact that you can play dumb means that you have nothing to prove. To put it simply, most people don’t care how intelligent you are. All they care about is their own brainpower, so play into their hands, make them feel smart, give them confidence in their own ideas, because you’ll only make enemies by proving your intelligence.

6. Stay concentrated

To find psychological power, don’t just identify your strengths, develop them. Many people can do many things at an average level, but they’re so busy jumping from skill to skill that they rarely specialize in anything. Specialties are one of the keys to success. If you concentrate on one strength, you can build a talent unlike anyone else’s, and in the same way, if you want to build psychological power, don’t spread yourself too thin. Concentrate on one direction, one project, or one purpose. Invest yourself wholly in that one direction. It’s a bigger risk, but with enough dedication, your reward will be exponentially greater.

7. Effortless Achievement

What do you say after finishing a huge project? do you tell people how hard you worked? Or do you say it was no problem? To gain psychological power, play down your achievements. Make each accomplishment seem easy and natural because people will believe you. Even if you invested countless hours into your work, show the world someone who’s confident and collected. You should never forget how hard you work, but the world doesn’t need to know.

8. Set anger aside

Do you lose your temper? Anger is a destructive emotion on your road towards success. Anger makes you impulsive, narrow minded and selfish. If someone makes you angry, they know they’ve gotten the best of you, they know they’ve hit a nerve, so they’ll keep pushing. Instead of getting angry, grow distance. Ambivalence is a far greater punishment than anger. When you ignore someone, you steal their power, you force them to get your attention, you make them do the work. Strong emotions will hurt your decision making and help others take advantage of you. So, keep your frustrations to yourself, stay calm and stay objective whenever possible.

9. Calm rush

Time is a common source of psychological power. The most powerful people are masters of timing and time management. Not only do they pack incredible amounts of work into their daily schedules, but they also never let their busy days get the best of them, at least not on the outside. They always seem cool, calm, and collected. They are never rushing or sweating. They’re always patient with their work and their goals because rushing is a recipe for disaster. It creates anxiety and it hurts your reputation. Instead of letting time control you, stay in control of your time, because your psychological power depends on it.

References:

The 48 Laws of Power (1998) book by Robert Greene.