Marking out in time

Sports personality of the year brings back fond memories of child hood for me. It appears to mark out a certain point in time in the year that Christmas is upon us and all the things that happened earlier in the year are now behind us, or to the side, or somewhere else......

If you were to think about where you are now and were to point in the direction of the future, where would it be?
Go on, point to it.

After you've done that, point to where the past is.

Some people have what's called their 'time line' running through loads of different directions, up and down, left to right, diagonal, infront only, the list goes on.

When you are out communciating with someone next and they are using their hands to communicate, look at how they mark out items and timeframes in 'spaces' or locations. What direction are the movements in, what does that say about where they mark out their timings? For example someone might say, "last week I went to..." whilst pointing back over their shoulder. Alternatively, someone might say, "I was looking at buying this car" and all of a sudden their attention is away from you and they are looking into thin air......seeing the car again in whatever direction they are looking.

Why do we need to know this? When you are communicating back to them, maybe re-communicating certain things they have mentioned, you can refer to those areas by subtly pointing to them to acknowledge their existence. Afterall, from the other persons perspective, that is really where they are!

Communicate to them on their level and you'll get results.