Chinese POWs and copywork

“Belief is a powerful armor that makes for the heaviest sword.” - John Mayer

Belief.

It’s the lens that you use to view and make sense of reality.

It constantly runs in the background of your mind, shaping thoughts, decisions, and actions.

The world is shaped by what you believe is true and what you believe isn't true.

But here’s the thing: you get to choose what to believe.

Do I sound stupid for saying something so obvious?

Maybe.

But I know I need a reminder every once and a while.

And I was just reminded yesterday while reading Influence by Robert Cialdini, in the sauna.

(sounds cool, but not really ideal… sweat gets all over the pages)

The 2nd chapter is pretty wild. It’s about commitment and consistency.

The story Bob tells is about Chinese-held US POWs during the Korean war.

The Chinese would coerce US soldiers into spilling secrets. But, not by torture.

No, they got them sing by doing COPYWORK!

Yes, that’s right, the Chinese communists used your writing guru’s favorite method of learning copywriting.

So how did this work?

Well, they would have the soldier’s copy down pro-Communist essays verbatim.

Then, they would slowly introduce writing assignments that were progressively more and more anti-American.

It proved to be an effective method.

Eventually, after doing all this writing, even though it was copying, the very act of just writing the words created an effect in the soldier’s psyche that essentially created a belief that they were the kind of person that writes these things.

Which in turn, changed them into someone that WOULD share secrets or messages that they never thought they could.

Powerful.

On a less nefarious level, you can use this potent mechanism to your advantage.

Like I said before, we are all limited by are beliefs.

But if we can change them, no matter how absurd, we can change what we think is possible.

Here’s a few ways to change your beliefs:

• Do the thing that [insert avatar of your ideal persona] does. Want to be a buff supermodel? Eat clean and work out. Want to be a superstar writer? Write a lot every day. Just by doing the action, you will start to believe it (which is the whole battle).

• Adjust your self talk. Those affirmation tapes really were on to something. Tell yourself “I am [thing you want to be]”. It will change your life.

I’ve used both of these methods, and they work.

Try it out.

What beliefs are you challenging?

Swanagan