Your Premise Affects Your Promise

As a teenager Nancy Regan implored us to “just say no” to drugs. That posture carried a heavy burden of shame and changed the storyline of what actions came next. How our culture addressed the issue of addiction.
 
I thought of this after seeing today’s Google doodle honoring Dr. Herbert Kelber, a psychiatrist who pioneered a compassionate way of looking at substance abuse. He understood it as a medical condition rather than a moral failure, an inability to just do the right thing. His research, following work at a prison hospital treating inmates with addiction, showed that therapy and medication prevented patient relapses.
 
Deciding what story we believe changes outcomes. Your premise – the “theme” of your story – makes a huge difference in results. If you are intentional in the framework of that story, the results will be different. You will show up to the marketplace with a different promise for your clients.
 
What premise is fueling the story you are telling your customers? What assertions are you making about the mindset of those people that you want to serve? What is the theme of your story?
 
Premise leads to promise. Promise leads to action. Those actions will either build trust or disconnection.
 
It all begins with story.
 
 If addiction is impacting your life, there are solutions: https://www.centeronaddiction.org