Aim for a Target in Your Conversations

You are more persuasive when you have a goal. Aiming at a particular target increases your ability to persuade. The question is, what's a good thing to aim for? My suggestion is to aim at something small that will help educate the person. Ideally something that doesn't cost anything.

If you live in America I think your best bet is to aim for getting the person to subscribe to ACT! for America's e-mail updates. The updates don't overwhelm subscribers with too much information and they choose good things to cover. And it's free. It's a small commitment and over time a subscriber will learn more about Islam's relentless encroachment.

I also suggest you set a target for how many people you will get to subscribe. Sales organizations often have contests, which turns the persuasion process into a game. Why do they do this? It helps keep the task interesting and fun. And people tend to accomplish more when they have a target they're trying to reach.

Set a target for next month: Say you will get 10 people or 20 people, or whatever seems possible for you, to sign up for ACT! for America's e-mail updates, and keep track. Have a chart on your wall. And when you get another person to sign up, make another hash mark. Reward yourself at the end of the month if you hit your target.

When you have a target, when there's something you're aiming at, it affects what you say and how you say it — affects it in a positive way. You'll automatically and quite naturally focus more on persuading and connecting than on arguing or "winning" or defeating the other person. Your orientation will be different. Different in a good way. You'll be more effective.

So choose a target. Choose something to aim at. If you're in a country where ACT! for America is not active, choose something else. The reason I chose ACT! for America is that their updates are good, but they tend to focus on events in the United States and Canada. So if you're not in one of those countries, that's probably not your best option for a target. But pick something like that. Get the person to subscribe to Jihad Watch, for example, or Europe News. Or get them to subscribe to Inquiry into Islam. Or get them to "like" your favorite counterjihad Facebook page. Or whatever. Pick something that will not be overwhelming, but will be informative.

If you have created your own counterjihad page on Facebook (and I sincerely hope you have), it would make your successes easy to keep track of. Facebook automatically emails you a weekly report telling you exactly how many fans you gained that week.

However you do it, get people to subscribe to something. It can help the person become more committed to the cause over time. Aim for only a small commitment at first. Let a greater commitment blossom from there.

The principal here is to have a target, and keep your target in mind. Keep aiming for your target. Remember your target while you're talking to someone, and always aim for that target in your conversations. This will improve your ability to persuade, it will help you keep a good attitude, and will ultimately lead to more awakened people.