So Many Good Ways To Communicate

Positivity And Solutions Win

by Paul Grimsley

It’s interesting — writing a title that says something like How Not To be Miserable seems less likely to garner attention and reads than one that is called How To Be Happy.

Looking back through some of the titles I have used in the past for my Medium articles, I notice that the ones that get the most traction are the ones with a positive or neutral bent. If there is something there that suggest it may just be another negative take on things people tend to shy away from it.

I remember thinking before that when you come to Medium and you are reading longform essays, a lot of what you are looking for is something that gives you answers and solutions, or at the very least ideas.

There is enough misery elsewhere to fill several Alexandrian Libraries, so why would you want to invest time in digging into more depressing writing?

When you are selling something you don’t sit down opposite the person and give them a laundry list of all the bugs you are trying to fix with something. You don’t come from the angle of nothing is perfect so why would this be? No, what you do it you highlight for them all the great stuff that your product or service offers.

Articles are much better received, it seems, when they are written with this in mind. If it comes to a battle between stick and carrot, for most people the preference would definitely be carrot. Who wants to get beaten into submission when being convinced to do something?

As my title suggests — there are so many good ways to communicate an idea, or to explore a subject, that frame it with solutions rather than problems, that are going to work better for you. You really do catch more flies with honey.