Messages are everywhere. Some can get to the point in just a few words, like a slogan. Others take more time, whether it’s an email memo, resume, or job posting. So how do you make the most of the types of words that you use? How do you immediately answer the question, “What’s your point?” in a message that is clear and impactful?

We are bombarded by messages, every second of every day. Which do we pay attention to the most? Do we pay attention to the professor who’s droning on without noticing that students aren’t listening to a word they’re saying?

It’s the messages that grab your attention that are the most impactful. Sure, the message might be simple, and echo a lot of what is already out there, but you can be certain that they are impactful because they are packaged in a way that is easy to digest, and memorable.

When writing your message, you will wonder, how can you grab your audience’s attention when no one wants to pay attention to you?

In this blog post I will suggest several ways to get your point across so that your message is clear, impactful, and memorable.

1. Why no one is paying attention

If you find that you are not getting engagement with your message, there may be several reasons why no one is paying attention. For example, your message is too vague. Or, your message is too cliched, and not new.

Other reasons as to why you’re not getting your message across are:

You’re not clear on what you want to say.

You don’t know how to say it.

You don’t know why you’re saying it.

To solve these problems, really examine what, why, and how you want to say it. What is your intention? Every message needs a purpose and intention, or there’s no point in saying it.

Sometimes you are trying to communicate what you are trying to say, but run into the frustration of not getting your meaning or point across in the best way possible.

You could be crafting a script for your sales pitch, or trying to get your brand messaging perfect.

2. Less is more

The most famous slogans are short and to the point. There are numerous examples.

Ever see your audience nod off after your opening lines, or have your reader glance at your article without reading it? It may be because you are using extra words that obscure the point. Solve this problem by using fewer words. Use the minimum amount of words you can get away with while still getting your point across.

Pithy is the word.

Unless you’re writing some sort of oeuvre with a lot of flourishes, bypass the rhetoric. It would be best to hone down the main key words for more impact. Don’t bury your meaning underneath extra words.

It makes the reader have to work hard to find your hidden meaning, and by then they would’ve given up if they haven’t figured it out and moved onto the next shiny new thing. People aren’t going to dig deep to find your meaning because it’s too much work for them. That’s why you have to be straightforward and state it plainly and clearly.

3. Is your message garbled?

When your message is garbled, it’s like playing a game of broken telephone. No one can understand what you’re saying so they ignore you and move on to the next thing.

To cut through the noise and static, say what you want to say, but only give yourself ten to twenty seconds to say it. If you limit the time you have in front of your audience, it forces you to cut out anything else that doesn’t drive your point home. Meandering or rambling messages are ineffective. Your audience is left wondering, why should I care?

4. Why should I care?

That’s why messages that are the most impactful draw upon the empathy of your audience. For your audience to be empathic, your message has to be relatable. You must guide your audience towards your message by using emotions and feelings.

You must be engaging to make your audience pay attention to you. To increase the impact of your message, use forceful and powerful words, but limit synonyms.

5. Have a logical outline

Always have a beginning, middle and end. Yes, your opening lines can start at the beginning or even the end, but always lead the listener back to the beginning and start properly from there. Without this outline, your audience is lost. It’s like wandering around in the dark without a roadmap or flashlight.

Choose your words carefully. Be concise. Make your point known right away, or as soon as possible. Don’t wear out your reader’s patience. Don’t wait until the middle of your message to let your reader know what it is that you want to talk about.

6. Your closing

In your closing, you should have a key takeaway message. The takeaway message must be clear so that there’s no confusion about what you want your audience to do after listening to you to the end.

The takeaway message must be memorable and actionable.

Tie it up with a take home message. Your closing should refer back to your opening and answer the question, what’s your point?

As someone who has a lot of irrational fears, I worry about things that will never happen, and situations that will never materialize in real life.

Why do I do this? The main reason is that fear, and imagining and cataloging all of the bad things can happen, prepares me in a way. As anyone knows, preparation is the key to being ready for what materializes, so it doesn’t catch you by surprise. It protects you from danger by letting you know that you have to take action to be prepared.

But sometimes the need to be prepared can greatly exaggerate the actual danger until it loses all sense of proportion and has no real link to what can actually happen.

1. Is fear irrational?

The things that most people fear the most will never happen. These are irrational fears, fears that spring up without reason in your consciousness.

But first, not all types of fears are irrational. Some examples of rational fear are fearing for your health if you should find yourself in a poor physical or mental condition. Life and death situations, when they do arise, is another example of when fear is the right way to respond.

During other situations, your flight or fight reaction kicks in and you do anything to avoid danger, including exaggerating the one in front of you. Your instincts for self-preservation kicks in and overtakes your sense of proportion. Everything is heightened, including your sense of danger.

This is when fear becomes irrational, and leads you to avoid situations and places that cause that fear.

2. Don’t let anxiety rule your life and actions

In trying to guard your safety, your instinct for self-preservation can lead you to make decisions that you later regret. I can attest to that.

Don’t let fear run your life and make all of your decisions for you. Even avoidance and inaction, where you don’t consciously make a decision, is a decision in itself. You might be mired in inaction because it’s the safest route. If you don’t do anything, nothing bad will happen, right?

Making a decision can feel like opening the door and inviting in the monster to hide under your bed. You don’t like surprises, especially the ones that jump out from nowhere and scare you. When that happens, the situation becomes out of your control, inducing stress and anxiety. The effects of fear, stress and anxiety can be debilitating, such as high blood pressure and heart attacks.

But not all actions will result in disaster. I’m not saying that actions don’t have consequences, just that we make it seem more catastrophic than it actually merits.

3. Quell your imagination

When you are afraid, your imagination is overactive and will think of a million different ways that things can go wrong. You want to be prepared and the best way to do that is to familiarize yourself with all the worst possibilities that can happen. You forget that out of all these possibilities, only one or two has a small percentage of happening.

If fear is irrational, it will make up the missing reasons to stop you from doing something dangerous, filling in the gaps like your brain automatically does a blindspot so that the illogical jumps from point A to point B make more sense.

You start to believe this voice because it’s only looking out for you. It tries its best to dissuade you from seeing reality as it is. It will do whatever to keep you safe.

So to overcome that fear, quell your imagination. Don’t let it control your life. Remind yourself that your imagination is just trying to protect you from hidden dangers, but that these dangers would probably never materialize.

4. Defeat that irrational fear

Fear tests your abilities to cope at the pivotal moment where you either sink or learn how to swim.

Yes, fear is oftentimes irrational. People are scared of failure and this is where the practice of building resiliency is useful. I recall several moments in my own life where instead of trying, I quit before I even started. And these are the moments that I regret the most.

Now, I have realized that some fears are illogical. One of the ways that you try to make sense of fear is to find reasons to validate that fear. But now I have stopped looking for reasons to support that fear, and two of the ways that have helped are listed below.

One of the easiest ways to do that is to write down everything that makes you afraid. Keep a “fear journal” and make a bullet-point list of your greatest fears. Getting it in writing is like unburdening yourself of your fear. It no longer lives in your mind, unresolved and undealt with.

A second way is to re-condition that fear. Place yourself right in front of your fear and look it in the eye until you realize that nothing bad has happened. When you are no longer naive to that fear, it becomes second nature to face it and not run away from it.

Eliminate excuses. Make a list of all the excuses you have to avoid doing something.
Facing that fear makes you learn how to swim. You can be treading water for a long time, but at least you’re not stuck on shore watching life pass you by.

Get familiar with that monster. Once you know that it’s not as scary as it seems, it’d be easier to defeat it.

During the start of the pandemic, and right at its peak when the most deaths occurred, it felt like the world as we knew it was ending.

The situation was dire and it was escalating too quickly for people to get a handle on it. It led people to re-examine whether what they spent their time doing was really worth it. For instance, employees questioned whether their time was best spent working in jobs that were not fulfilling. They questioned their priorities. They quit their jobs, saw their businesses go bankrupt, or set up new ones. People hunkered down and stayed in quarantine.

The crisis of a world that was ending

During the crisis, there was uncertainty, and the feeling of not knowing whether there would be a tomorrow. No one was prepared for a world thrown in turmoil when the death count started to rise rapidly.

It felt like the apocalypse, and everyone was stressed out, waking up everyday in a life or death situation. Days were unpredictable. Doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers were burnt out, as well as most other people who had families to take care of and jobs to juggle (if they were lucky enough to have a job).

Just like any catastrophe that rocks the world unexpectedly, many predicted that doomsday was near. There was widespread panic as people stockpiled supplies and food, not knowing whether there would be enough for everyone to survive. Businesses that shut down had to lay off masses of employees.

We had to keep hope alive and trust that it would get better.

So if it’s the end of the world, what did people try to do?

They stocked up on supplies.

They stayed in touch with family and their loved ones.

They didn’t give up on hope.

People prepared for doomsday. It was chaos. There was panic buying as people stocked up on essentials and emptied the shelves at some grocery stores. If they imagined that the world was about to end, for several moments, it was a not-so-distant reality. School boards shuttered their schools to stop the spread of the virus and almost all travel halted. Many were unable to see their loved ones because the travel ban shut down major airports.

The post-pandemic era

Now that it’s been four long years since the start of the pandemic, the world has undergone a seismic shift and it hasn’t been the same ever since.

At the fourth anniversary of the start of the pandemic, many are reflecting and looking back at the lessons learned.

For instance, the pandemic brought to light many inequalities that plague society, such as the inequality for access to vaccines. There were efforts to make access to healthcare more equitable.

There were many deaths, but also many instances where people went beyond what was expected of them, to help out others in need. If there was ever a situation where people needed to work together, it was the pandemic.

Keep calm and carry on was advice you’d hear but didn’t pay close attention to. If there was ever a time to keep calm, it was during the height of the pandemic. It was a close call. Without people working together, the fear and the crisis could’ve been much worse.

How has work changed since the start of the pandemic?

During the pandemic, if they were lucky enough to keep their business going, employers are pressured to pay employees more, with better benefits and better work-life balance. The more unfortunate ones had to close their business.

Employees embraced remote work and a more flexible lifestyle. It allowed them to be more present with their young children, and for caregivers to look after elderly parents.

Lessons learned from the pandemic

People thought about what they regret, and what they wished they would’ve done when they still had the time.

The pandemic taught us to re-evaluate your priorities. What matters the most to you? What is most important? Are you more satisfied with your work life? Personal life? If not, it’s time to change things around.

Don’t wait for a disaster for you to realize that you have to live life to its fullest. Tell the most important people in your life that you love them. Make the most out of your short time on earth. There’s nothing like a major disaster to make you question your priorities. The things you thought were important suddenly don’t matter anymore.

The pandemic transformed the world in the space of a few days, and it could just as easily change again. Something unpredictable could happen that no one was prepared for.

It’s possible that after the pandemic, everything would go back to the way that it was. But don’t let yourself settle into complacency again. Take action and do every little thing you keep putting off. You’re alive, and it’s something to be tremendously grateful for.

The potential of artificial intelligence to change the facet of every industry is limitless. Already, we have applied AI tools to the health, manufacturing, transportation, and finance industries.

But can we trust AI or a robot to act in a way that we want it to act? And is that trust based on a good, solid foundation?

Discoveries in AI are moving at a warp speed that sometimes we trust it without knowing whether that trust is unfounded. Can we rely on robots and AI technology without knowing the consequences of that trust?

1. Do robots have integrity?

Or are they clumsy and error-prone?

If you’ve used chatbots such as ChatGPT, most likely you found that the results are varied and that there are limitations to their power to respond to prompts.

We expect robots to have integrity and to be right ninety-nine percent of the time, more so because we created it with the intention that it will serve us reliably.

But who is monitoring our use of AI and the truthfulness of its output? As a chatbot program collects and stores anything that you enter in the program, how do users know how the data is used? Moreover, can a third party spy on your use of a chatbot?

A chatbot doesn’t cite its sources or where it gathers information from, and can even make up references. Fact-checking is still in development. Without a human eye to intervene and check the work, using a chatbot can be the same as plagiarizing, even if the user is not lifting the words directly from a source. In fact, the New York Times sued OpenAI for using their content to train their software.

Academics are wary of plagiarism in AI-powered writing tools. There can be ways to detect plagiarism but it’s like cutting off the head of a hydra, the solution is only temporary before people find new ways to outsmart detection.

The type of information that is available through the power of AI also enables a breeding ground for criminal activity and misuse. So not only must there be rules to ensure public safety, there must be ways of monitoring the landscape of AI.

2. Do we expect too much from robots?

There are many great things that AI can do for society. But our unavoidable dependency on AI technology leaves us prone to trust them and expect more from them above real people.

Will we end up trusting robots more than humans? Their convenience would tempt us to integrate them increasingly in our everyday lives. Robots can make just about everything more efficient. Inventions such as self-driving cars and the ability of robots to write complex computer programs are just two examples.

They also have the capacity to synthesize information from large sets of data at breakneck speed. But even with its superhuman computational power, AI is just as flawed as humans.

Someone needs to be held accountable for the truthfulness and reliability of AI tools. If the creators of chatbots are not responsible, then who is?

3. Do robots have feelings?

The introduction of AI technology poses the question of just what it means to be human. Does a robot have reasoning and mental faculties?

Moreover, can robots outcompete humans? We are already seeing a lot of fear and worry that robots have made redundant the jobs that were originally done by humans. Not only that, the power of chatbots to mimic human language is astounding, and they can create masterful works of art in less than five seconds. In trying to match wits against a robot, who would win?

Chatbot users must be cautious and understand just because it is more powerful than humans, doesn’t mean that it’s perfect. There is a lot of work, research, policy creation for us to do before we can fully implement AI into our lives.

As with any new invention, people should consider it with a dose of skepticism before it gains widespread acceptance, and be cautious about how we would integrate AI into our everyday lives.

Predictions that robots will replace the human workforce are not unfounded. Disruptive technology can shut down businesses and make them obsolete but it also has the potential to create new ones.

4. The ethical use of AI

Policy makers have the onerous task of drafting the rules for the ethical use of AI. There is rampant potential for the misuse of AI. As AI overtakes mere human intelligence, we must structure responsibility and governance around the use of AI. From plagiarism to criminal activity, we can’t understate the seriousness of the misuse of AI.

There must be clear rules in the use of AI that everyone can abide by. Getting people to actually follow them is another feat. It will only work if there is consensus and mutual trust given to each other.

In addition, there must be fairness and equality so that everyone can benefit from it regardless of their background.

5. AI: friend or foe?

We shouldn’t fear AI but we have to consider AI to be both a threat and an asset to humanity.

With the speed of technology, there was no time to prepare for it and weigh the risks and benefits so we could put the brakes on it.

If there ever was a time to be guided by the principle to “do no harm”, the moment is now. Not playing by the rules leaves everyone vulnerable to wrongdoing.

Like Frankenstein, the power of what we are unleashing can catch us unawares. Horror stories and science fiction plots aside, it is up to the users of AI to monitor their own actions and find solutions to new problems caused by AI, of which there are many.

There is a lot of dialogue and ideas stemming from AI. The more we are vocal about the ethics that govern the use of AI, the more likely that we are able to benefit from it.

There’s a concept in game theory that we help others because ultimately, it helps ourselves.

It’s widely debated, and speculated, about why we are altruistic. The idea forms one of the principles in the theory of evolution. We help others because in some way, cooperation is better than antagonism. It ensures that our genes are passed onto future generations, making us more evolutionarily fit. But the problem is, altruism sometimes opposes our own self-interests.

1. Can we truly be altruistic?

Altruism is the act of being selfless, and looking out for the well-being of others above your own. It’s the willingness to help without any ulterior motive or expecting any rewards in return.

Is there such a thing as true altruism? It’s easy, when we’re our most cynical, to conclude that we help others because we have ulterior motives, or a hidden agenda.

I was thinking about this when I was at a networking event, introducing myself to the other networkers and finding out what they did for a living. As with any networking event, there’s a lot of requests for introductions to other people. Some people might not like networking because they are uncomfortable with asking strangers for favours, especially if they can’t return the favour. As someone who works for a large corporation,  I’ve had such requests from people I’ve just only met. Any introduction that I made would potentially open a lot of doors for anyone who asks.

If someone reaches out to me for a favour, and it’s within my power to help them, I’m happy to oblige. I’m always willing to do a good deed, but it made me think. I started questioning whether I do it because I expected something in return.

I thought about what kind of a person I would be if I set about doing good deeds without expecting anything in return, if I learned to pay it forward. So with this in mind, I agreed to introduce them to someone from my network.

2. No good deeds…

When we’re the recipient of the kindness of strangers, we’re compelled to act charitable to others in return. You feel good about yourself afterwards. And when we rely on kindness, and someone else’s good will and genuine interest to see us do well, we’re indebted to them.

Were these the same reactions I had after helping them? Was I glad to help, or resentful that I didn’t get anything in return besides their gratitude?

Is it true that no good deed goes unpunished? Let’s say I did something as inconsequential as giving up my seat on the bus to someone else. Will something bad happen to me if I am nice to others?

As someone who doesn’t feel as if I was often on the receiving end of good luck, or goodwill, what would happen if I freely gave away kindness without expecting anything in return?

In all honesty, it felt a little unfair that I should be helping people when I haven’t always been at the receiving end of an altruistic act of kindness. It’s not a pleasant feeling, especially when things are so competitive, to see someone that you help win, but feel like you’re left out when you’re not winning, too.

But I did this expecting nothing in return except for, possibly, their gratitude. If gratitude is all I will get, should that be enough?

3. A good samaritan

Through some convoluted karmic conspiracy, you may find yourself at the receiving end of a good deed. It could’ve probably been the consequence of something you did a few years ago, good or bad, that is now returned to you four-fold.

In an ideal world, you wouldn’t have to work hard at being altruistic. In this ideal world, being altruistic, and in general a good samaritan, would be as easy to you as any other rational behaviour.

Maybe in the grand scheme of things, these small acts of kindness won’t have changed anything, and won’t have any lasting impact. I have to remember to put aside thoughts of only doing things for my own gain. After all, what’s the purpose of attending networking events if I wasn’t ready to help other people. What was I doing there in the first place?

4. What stops us from trying to be altruistic?

It could be that we don’t have time, energy or resources to do a good deed. Or we could be resistant to doing any good deeds because we have to look out for ourselves first and foremost.

In my opinion, altruism, or the lack thereof, has a lot to do with competition.

Society doesn’t allow us to be as altruistic as we might wish. We’re more cautious about where and how we expend our energy and resources. We’re taught to be selfish because it ensures our survival. How can we be altruistic when there is so much competition and helping others will actually hurt us in the end?

Nice people finish last, but it shouldn’t have to be this way. It’s time to change this. We shouldn’t have to worry that our good deeds will come back to haunt us. There are ways to be selfless and giving without sacrificing our well-being or personal success.

5. Why we should be more altruistic

My own small acts of kindness are just small waves in an ocean.

Last month, it was the season for giving and spreading good cheer. You would’ve surely seen many examples of this during the holidays. Doing things without expecting anything in return is the best thing you can do as an upstanding citizen, even when it’s not a holiday. Holidays are reminders that get you in the spirit of giving, but we could do much more than that. Your actions have a far greater impact than you can imagine.

We could do with more optimism and faith that people will behave kindly in return if we do something good and selfless.

1. Does human evolution shape our habits?

I was reading the bestseller Atomic Habits by James Clear, and it introduced some interesting concepts about human evolution to explain why we are resistant to changing our habits. The book isn’t about human evolution, but refers to the theory to get some of its points across.

In the book, there were at least two stubborn habits that Clear attributes to human evolution. They involve 1) our modern diet, and 2) delayed gratification.

One of our most common habits is to eat junk food instead of a nutritious meal. In the current obesity epidemic, we tend to crave calorie-rich food that is high in sugar, salt and fat. An explanation for this is that our ancestors needed to store energy and fuel up on food in order to survive. Since it was uncertain when they could find their next meal, it would be evolutionarily advantageous to hang onto the fat storage in their bodies. That’s why we crave calorie-rich food.

In the present day however, food sources are plentiful, and this is when our evolutionary history doesn’t serve us well, as modern humans.

Evolution is doing us a disservice by not catching up to our current way of life.

2. How can we beat human evolution at its own game?

Most likely you have heard of the paleo diet. This diet is high in fruit, vegetables, and nuts. The diet cuts back on dairy, carbohydrates and meat in order to lose weight. This might seem like a good plan. However, critics who say that the paleo diet is just a fad also say that if you eat less calories than you burn, you would lose weight. It doesn’t matter whether you follow a certain diet or not.

The second bad habit is favouring instant gratification rather than delayed gratification. Early humans were focused on survival. They hunted or scavenged food for today, and protected themselves from predators and immediate threat. Because our brain has evolved to favour living for the present rather than the future, we don’t act unless it’s to do something that will satisfy our cravings immediately.

For example, you want that burger right now. You’re not motivated to exercise because you won’t see immediate weight loss right away. The way around this habit is to build a reward system each time so that you are more motivated to exercise.

Both habits, that we crave calorie-rich foods, and opt for instant instead of delayed gratification, are examples of how evolution is doing modern humans a disservice.

3. The “mismatch” between life as a modern human and our evolutionary history

These are interesting concepts that I felt warrant further research and investigation. So I found the book Unfit for Purpose by Adam Hart at the local library. An interesting read, Hart termed it a “mismatch” between our evolutionary history and our present way of life in modern societies.

It should be noted that the book pokes several holes in the theory about how obesity evolved. For instance, it would make more sense that evolution would favor a lean body type so that humans would be faster at running away from predators. Also, obesity should be selected for if famine were to act as a selective pressure. Yet, famine does not occur at a high enough frequency, and the ones who are more likely to die from famine (children and the elderly) would have no effect on selection since they are not in the reproductive age.

Hart also gives several other examples of how evolution made us “unfit for purpose.” Celiac disease is linked to mutations in the HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8 genes. These mutations cause inflammation in the small intestine, symptoms of gluten intolerance. The mutations are thought to be positively selected for because it protects against dental cavities. There is no cure for celiac disease, rather it is only possible to prevent rather than treat the diseases by avoiding gluten in the diet.

4. The evolutionary response to stress is misaligned with modern living

Our response to stress is another way that evolution is misaligned with modern living. The flight or fight response has allowed early humans to run away from predators. However, it is now causing us to have extreme reactions such as heart attacks. We no longer consider predators such as lions and leopards to be a constant threat, but our fight or flight response still kicks in when we are faced with stressful situations. We have learned that stress, both acute and chronic, can have debilitating effects on our well-being. Whole industries supply solutions on coping with stress, such as meditation, yoga, and exercise.

Another major stressor that has emerged in today’s society is our tendency to be plugged into large social networks. We constantly have our computers, laptops, phones, and televisions switched on. Humans were not evolved to have large social networks. Our ancestors lived in tribes for protection, but the magic number is 150 individuals, which is the optimal group size derived from statistics.

It’s true, people have an unhealthy preoccupation with social media. The speed at which technology is changing the modern world also makes it too fast for evolution to catch up and cope with it. The solution is to unplug and stop stressing out about Facebook posts, Instagram followers, and tweets.

5. We must use strategy to win the game

Experts love to refer to evolution to explain our faults as modern humans. It’s useful for understanding our compulsions and why we act the way we do, and possibly, what we can do about our bad habits. We can study human evolution and try to mitigate the effects of millenia of conditioning by finding ingenious ways to hack our way out of any problem. If only it can be as easy as changing the trajectory of our own evolution!

Further Reading

Clear, James. Atomic Habits. (2018)
Hart, Adam. Unfit for Purpose. (2020)