Those of you who read last week’s memo will recall that it ended with a Question: “If objective, 4th-dimensional reality is this meeting place that we call the space-time continuum, (composed of Height, Width, Depth and Time,) then what would a 3-dimensional reality be?”
Answer: a reality outside of Time.
Height, Width and Depth are the realm of the dorsolateral prefrontal association area of the brain – Imagination, where personal, 3-dimensional realities live and thrive amidst your brain’s ten thousand billion synapses. Interestingly, most of your life will take place in 3-dimensional reality. The 4th dimension, Time, is simply where your 3-dimensional realities overlap with mine.
No person can take action until they have first imagined that action in their mind. The objective of human persuasion, advertising, is to introduce a 3-dimensional reality into the mind of another, to cause them to imagine doing what you want them to do. Having accomplished this, the step from the 3-dimensional reality of their mind into this ballroom called the 4th dimension is a very short step indeed.
Are 3-dimensional realities really real? They are as real as a mother’s love. Although the love of a mother does not exist in physical, objective reality, there are few who would say that it is not real. A mother’s love is perceptual reality, 3-dimensional reality, a reality outside of time.
Are there truly realities outside of time? Certainly! It was to one such 3-dimensional, perceptual reality, Freedom, that the signers of our Declaration pledged “their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.”
Advertising cannot change objective, 4th-dimensional reality, but it can powerfully change perceptual, 3-dimensional reality. Your customer’s expectations are 3-dimensional realities. Good advertising can modify, change and adjust these. To what degree do you need to modify the public’s awareness of you?
How much do you need to adjust “what they may or may not have heard” about you, your store, your company? Yes, expectations are a 3-dimensional reality. But what will happen when the customer’s 3-dimensional Expectations are replaced by 4th-dimensional Experience? Are you careful to deliver what you have promised in your ads? “Friendly service?” “Huge selection?” “Low prices?” How good are you, really, at what you do? Because when all the brave talk and glowing promises are through, the 4th dimension is where the winners are separated from the losers.
Please be good at what you do.
Roy H. Williams
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Jesus spoke of the power of 3-dimensional realities when he counseled us to guard our thoughts – “Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already slept with her in his heart…” He knew that it was a very short step from the 3rd dimension into the 4th… from imagination into Time.
