On Being Convincing – Sunday, February 03, 1946
One thing we all have to learn in order to live happily and successfully is how to get along with people. And one important factor in getting along with people is to deserve their confidence—to be convincingly sincere. Then comes the question: How can we be thus convincing? How can we give assurance to others that there is no sham or superficiality or hidden motive in our dealings with them? How can we convince them that the reasons we sometimes give are the real reasons for some of the things we do? Sometimes there is much studied effort to be convincing—much utterance of pleasing and well-chosen words—much resort to the techniques of persuasion—all of which have their proper uses, no doubt, and which, even with misuse, sometimes meet with seeming success. But those who misuse their powers of persuasion, those who mislead us, are seldom long accredited in one place; they soon squander their capital of the confidence which others have in them, and are convincing no more.
No matter how able or artful they are, sooner or later they have to find new prospects, new friends, new faces, because there is no satisfactory way of long-continued dealing with anyone, except on the basis of mutual trust and confidence. And ultimately to be convincing is no mere matter of salesmanship, or of showmanship, or of oratory, or of artistry; it is no mere matter of technique—no more than is being truthful or honest or virtuous a matter of technique. Either we are or we aren’t.
When we want to be convincing, therefore, suppose we examine our own hearts; suppose we look squarely at our own motives; suppose we imagine that others can read our thoughts, even as we can; suppose we see ourselves standing before the Judge of all men, with nothing hidden—which indeed we all one day shall—and if, supposing all this, we are still convincing to ourselves, then we may well rightfully expect to be convincing to others. There is only one sure way to be convincing and that is to be what we ought to be—to seem to what we are—and to be as sincere and as honest as we sometimes wish others were.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station. K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Feb. 3, 1946. Copyright 1946.
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February 03, 1946
Broadcast Number 0,859