Say the good thing that is there

When you tell people a bad thing is missing, you make them think about the bad thing. To deny a worry, you have to name it first, and often nobody had that worry until you did.

Imagine a juice shop in Madinah with a sticker on its glass that says "no powder". A woman waiting for her orange juice reads it. Until then, it had never crossed her mind that juice could come from a packet. Now she looks hard at the cup before she drinks.

The sticker was meant to calm her. It gave her a new doubt instead.

This happens wherever people try to reassure. The word "no" is small. The picture that comes after it is big, and the picture is what stays.

So say the good thing that is there. A sign that read "pressed while you wait" would have told her the same truth without the doubt.

The same goes for a product page, a price list or a message to a friend. Before you write "no" or "not" to put someone at ease, stop and find the positive version. Then say that, and only that.

People remember the worry you named. They forget the "no" in front of it.