A story

A few weeks ago, my school group (8 of us) had patient case presentations. It was a Friday and given the vibe of the day of ‘I want to get this over with so that I go back home and vegetate on some TikTok’, each of us wanted to go present first and leave the hospital. No one wanted to go last so in my head, I had no problem with being the ‘sacrificial lamb’ that waits. I had no problem with it until someone said, “you should go last because you usually have no problem with it.”

I don’t know what it was but it felt like a switch was flipped in my head to just be antagonistic. It was saying “I was okay with going last on my own volition but since you said I should, I don’t want to anymore.”

I am sure we all relate to how you could wake up one morning, feel like you could do the dishes, sweep the floors and even mop the ceiling. UNTIL, until your mom tells you to do so.

It’s like all the internal motivation you had to do something just vanishes out the window and you get into a “I don’t want to do it anymore” type of mode.

We are all rebels

There is a certain part in us all that just doesn’t want to be told what to do. Certainly in me, being hard and strong headed is a trait. So knowing this about humans, what do you do when you want to communicate with your peers effectively or write something?

Don’t tell, cause thought

I was really trying to think of a catch statement do distill all this. “Don’t tell, cause thought” sounds grammaticaly correct but I am not settled with it😂. But it will have to make do. And it’s really self-explanatory.

Don’t tell people what to do. We don’t want to be told what to do. Instead, lead people to think for themselves. No wonder there is the over-reliance on the not-so-common ‘common sense.’ We expect individuals to get to certain conclusions using ‘common sense’ (but of course it’s not so common) and that’s how people want to be treated.

People love freedom and autonomy. The best feeling is doing something because you did it because you wanted to. Not because you were told to.

Conclusion

Hence as a communicator, speaker or ‘content creator👀’, aim to present the facts in a way that enables people to get to their own conclusions. Cross your fingers that if whatever you are saying makes sense, people are also going to get to the same conclusion as well.

And if they feel like they are forming their own opinion or conclusions without you being instructive or pushy, it’s much more likely to see people respond positively to you.