Positive thinking. Norman Vincent Peale had it right in his Power of Positive Thinking classic. Here is one way to communicate effectively.

Ask questions in a positive way. It’s not old fashioned – it works.

A soldier serving at the end of a chow line decided to test the power of positive thinking. He was serving, and asked the first 100 fellow soldiers:

“You don’t want a bowl of apricots do you?” 90% said NO.

The next 100 he changed his tactic, same question, different phrasing:

“Would you like a bowl of apricots?” 50% said YES.

Then, the clincher:

“Would you like one or two bowls of apricots?” 40% said 2, 50% said 1, and ONLY 10% SAID NO.

How positive do you want to be? Depends on how much you want.