Speech Journals

Speech Journals

Has anyone ever persuaded you to do something that you did not want to do? If so, how did they do it? If not, what prevented them from doing it?

It's impossible for a person to get everything that they want. A part of getting everything we want is doing everything that we want. In the ideal scenario, this would just be one of those 'no regrets' things, so common to Hollywood. But reality isn't that easy. What many call the 'art' of compromise is actually an art, learned through numerous painful experiences. Happiness is never a compromise. In fact, happiness comes to us in the form of unadulterated joy, pure pleasure. But pain comes painstakingly slow, snaking its way into our lives. It is in these painful times that we learn to compromise. As we grow up and learn to understand ourselves and those around us, we're always compromising. Always.

The earliest compromise begins with authority. Since an early age, our authority is incessantly undermined by our parents, teachers and peers. We begin to understand the cultural make-up of the society we live in, along with acceptable forms of behavior. These behavioral forms are shunned and reinforced through punishment and rewards. We all know the basics. But very few people realize, consciously, that this 'process' is actually teaching us to compromise. We're always compromising between what is right and what is wrong, between doing things we want to do and doing things we must do. In the most simplistic understanding of the word 'compromise', it is us yielding to conditions.

I have had many experiences where I have compromised. I have done many things that others wanted me to do, but I simply didn't see them in that way. For me, there's always a conscious choice and a certain amount of control that we can assert on ourselves and others. I compromise, but I know that I do this consciously. I deliberately choose it. I don't get persuaded into doing what others want, unless the person persuading is particularly skilled in what he or she is doing. I feel the burden of choice too deeply to simply enter into what someone else wants me to do. Since I have that mindset, it is difficult to convince me otherwise. I feel that it is a privilege to understand oneself, and everything that we as individual entities desire. The power of persuasion is great, but not great enough to deprive me of that understanding of things that I want. There always a fine, marked line between being under someone else's influence, and doing something that someone else wants because you agree with them. For me, it is almost always the latter.

There have been many times that I have been persuaded to do something I didn't want. When I was younger, for example, I hated math with a passion. I didn't understand my math professor's obsession with algebra. I didn't understand why I needed to know the quadratic ...