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Personal magnetism requires much more than the effective use of language. Magnetic individuals communicate with their entire body, thus making effective use of nonverbal communication. You are undoubtedly familiar with nonverbal communication, or silent messages. The purpose of this type of communication is to help convey the feeling associated with a message. The slant here on nonverbal communication is to present those techniques that will most likely contribute to your personal magnetism.

Learning to manipulate nonverbal techniques to enhance magnetism is challenging for two major reasons. One challenge is that nonverbal communication is imprecise. Even more so than words, a given nonverbal signal will not be interpreted in the same way by all those receiving the signal. Suppose you forcefully move your hand with the thumb extended in front of you, and then make a quick jerking motion upward. Most people observing you will interpret your gesture as an indicator of optimism and triumph.

Consciously or unconsciously, your gesture will contribute to your image as a magnetic person in the minds of most of the people receiving your message. Several of the people receiving your message, however, will interpret it differently, even negatively. Someone might say to himself, "Write off this character, he (or she) is acting like a silly teenager." Another person might think to herself, "Ugh! I can't stand a cliché in the form of a hand gesture."

To respond to this challenge, recognize that using nonverbal techniques to enhance your magnetism will not work with all those people you are trying to influence. A realistic goal of using nonverbal techniques is to increase the odds that you will have a magnetic effect on others. Another challenge in using nonverbal techniques to enhance your magnetism is that considerable practice is required before a given signal will appear spontaneous.

A non-spontaneous, or stiff, nonverbal signal usually has a negative effect. Have you ever watched a speaker use hand gestures in such a way that it looks as if he had been told to use those gestures? The gestures probably appeared disconnected from the words being delivered. As a result, the nonverbal signals detracted from rather than enhanced the delivery.

To capitalize on the potential contribution of nonverbal signals to enhance your magnetism, you will need to practice them frequently enough so that they become smoothly blended into your repertoire. The practice required to master a magnetic nonverbal communication is yet another reminder that developing or enhancing magnetism is a tough, time-consuming assignment.