So, I'm at this point....tricking myself. Thing is, I have always had to do this, I just didn't know it was called psych tricks. I was thinking, when did this even start?
I remember this day clearly, as both my mom and a family friend, Rocky, had to trick me into taking my picture. I did not want to wear that red shirt. Rocky, just bought a new camera that took color photos, ya it was a big deal, he made all of the colorful vignettes and took our pictues. I wrote the blog post about washing dishes last week and the saying "sweeper takes all" - a little "trick" my family had to get someone to sweep. So, I asked social media, "what is a psych trick you use?" Most of the answers were about kids or when they were kids. Here are some of them.
"My mom would say, 'I think I lost a dollar!' to get us to pick up"
"My grandson was 3 and didn't want to finish drinking his milk so I told him it was muscle juice and it would make him big and strong. From then on, he would drink his muscle juice and then flex his muscles afterward."
"My mom would say, when my niece didn't want to go down for a nap, 'just lay down, I'll count to 100 then you can get up' she fell asleep long before 100."
"When my niece was little, I tried not to swear in front of her, instead I would say 'how rude!' she started saying this when someone did something not nice."
"When my grands didn't want to leave, I would say 'do you want to come back sometime?' they would say 'yes' then I would say 'then you have to go home now so you can come back again."
Tricks work with children, I know, I've worked with lots and on a wide range of the spectrum. I remember this one time, I was a teacher's aide in the CD/LD room at my daughters' grade school. Upon entering the room I saw the teacher chasing a student, who was blowing his recorder loudly, around the room. I said "woohoo that was great! You sure can play that recorder! I tell you what, how bout you play as loud as you can and the whole class will cheer for you, but when a minute is done, you will give me the recorder okay?....ready, set, blow." The whole class with my lead clapped and cheered. "O.k, the minute is done," and I held out my hand. He gave me the recorder and I turned it over to the teacher....she looked mad....and I said "when you're a mama, you will figure these little tricks out too."
Tricks/pshych tricks - I say potato/patato, tricking to motivate is as old as mothers!
Do you have any that you grew up with? You maybe used on your children?
"Oh, raking leaves is so much fun, we can make a huge pile to jump in." "I bet, you will find money, if you help me clean up after the flea market, people always lose money."
The flea market one worked, because they actually did find money on more than one occassion. So the trick became a reward. It was because they found a $20 one time that made that #psychtrick work.
So on this "I Will Monday" I will use my very own #psychtricks on me. Some will be new and others I've used before. It is the later that I know from experience holds a reward if I just stick with it. "Oh Dicky Bird, I bet if you clean out that storage room of yours, you'll find a treasure." And, I usually do...or at least something I forgot I bought. You don't have to be a child, just childlike for these to work....ahahah.
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
