It's Not a Trust FALL, it's a Trust CALL

I was talking with a friend yesterday who is moving on from a relationship. It’s not that it’s terribly wrong. It’s just not what she fully wants. She sighed, “I guess it’s just a trust fall.” Something about that phrase felt wrong.

A trust fall is about surrendering. It’s based on the hope someone will be there to catch you.

I didn’t think she was doing this in the hopes someone would catch her.

In that moment, my brain does what it does.

It looked for language that felt more “right.”

It looked for words that more accurately described what was happening - in a more intriguing way.

My brain also did what it does by using juxtaposition, alliteration, rhythm and rhyme to POP! a fresh phrase.

It jumped on the bandwagon of the original word to come up with something closer to it - but with a fun twist.

After all, do you know what Einstein did when he realized he had a good idea?

He LAUGHED OUT LOUD.

My mind kept exploring ways to describe what was actually happening … with a fresh phrase. Aha! Eureka! There it was.

I laughed, “It’s not a trust FALL. It’s a trust CALL.”

Yep. That felt better.

The word puzzle pieces fell into place as this is closer to what she’s actually doing. She's trusting there's a more aligned 1+1=11 relationship out there.

She’s having the clarity and courage to move on from something that’s not 100% in the faith she'll find (or create) something that is.

How about you?

Are you in a situation that’s not what you fully want?

The first step, of course, is to do what you can - in tandem - to create a partnership that IS more aligned with what you both want.

If you’ve tried to do that for months (years?), and you read the writing on the wall and realize that’s never going to happen… then maybe it’s time to move on?

It’s not a trust FALL, it’s a trust CALL.

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Want to unpack what I did to create a fresh phrase for what you want to say?

Here's how you can do the new instead of the norm.

Create what I call an Emperor Has No Clothes Phrase.

1. What is a topic, situation, attitude, presumption you want to address?
2. What do people commonly believe - think is true - about this? What do they normally say - and take for granted - that this is how it is?
3. Take exception to that. For example, author John LeCarre said, "'The cat sat on the mat,' is not the beginning of a story. 'The cat sat on the dog's mat' is."
4. Replace an expected word with an unexpected word. "(For example, what do you call a married couple who renew their vows? RenewlyWeds." Keep playing with options until you laugh or chuckle. That's when you know you have a clever, uncommon twist on a common phrase.
5. Be contrarian or counter-intuitive. What can you say that challenges authority, causes people to rethink their assumptions, question their current beliefs or behaviors?
6. Now, turn that into a the perfect title, tagline, and AIR-tight sound-bite with techniques from POP! that show how to craft a phrase-that-pays that gets what you say noticed, remembered, and acted on - for all the right reasons. Have fun. As Seth Godin said in his cover endorsement, “Words matter, every one of them, and this book will revolutionize the way you use them.”